John Stuart Stuart-Glennie facts for kids

John Stuart Stuart-Glennie (1841–1910) was a Scottish lawyer who also studied old stories and traditions (a folklorist). He was a deep thinker (a philosopher), one of the first people to study how societies work (a founding sociologist), and believed in fairness for everyone (a socialist).

About His Life

John Stuart Stuart-Glennie was born in 1841. His father was Alexander Glennie. His mother's grandfather was John Stuart of Inchbreck. He studied law at the University of Aberdeen and the University of Bonn. He became a lawyer at the Middle Temple in London. Later, Stuart-Glennie stopped practicing law. He traveled across Europe and Asia. He collected many old stories and traditions, which is called folklore. He wrote several books and many articles. He developed a big idea about how history works. He also helped the Folklore Society. His ideas were often ahead of their time.

His Ideas and Friends

The Moral Revolution

A scholar named Eugene Halton says Stuart-Glennie's most important idea was his "moral revolution" theory. He first wrote about it in 1873. This theory describes big changes that happened in different civilizations about 2,500 years ago. This was around 600-500 BCE. This historical shift happened in places like ancient China, India, among Jewish people, and in Greece. Later, in 1949, Karl Jaspers called this period the "axial age". In 1906, Stuart-Glennie explained his idea again. He said that around the 6th century BCE, new religions appeared. These religions focused on inner purity and conscience. They were different from older religions that focused on outward rules. For example, this period saw the rise of Confucianism in China and Buddhism in India. Zoroastrianism in Persia and a new form of Yahvehism in Syria also appeared. Similar changes happened in Egypt, Greece, and Italy.

History and Nature

Stuart-Glennie's theory of the moral revolution was part of a bigger idea about history. He also thought about prehistory. He suggested that early people had a "panzoonist" view. This means they believed all life had a spiritual basis. They saw nature as something to respect and worship. He proposed "panzooinism" in 1873. This was an alternative to E. B. Tylor’s idea of animism. Tylor thought spirits lived in things from the outside. Stuart-Glennie believed that nature itself had inner powers that deserved attention. He thought that before the 6th century BCE, civilizations were shaped by nature. After that, they were shaped more by human thoughts and myths. However, Stuart-Glennie's ideas had a flaw. He accepted some "scientific" racism of his time. He claimed that civilization began from a "Conflict of Higher and Lower Races." This part of his theory is not accepted today.

Important Connections

When he was 21, Stuart-Glennie met and traveled with the famous philosopher John Stuart Mill. Mill was impressed by Stuart-Glennie's interest in science and history. Mill also influenced Stuart-Glennie's ideas about helping humanity. Mill said Stuart-Glennie was "a young man of, I think, considerable promise." In 1885, Stuart-Glennie became friends with the Irish writer George Bernard Shaw. They both shared an interest in socialism. Shaw even compared Stuart-Glennie to Friedrich Nietzsche. Shaw noted Stuart-Glennie's writings on how religions could be used to control people. This included creating fear and false hope in an afterlife. Stuart-Glennie called these "Hell religions." Lewis Mumford, a writer, said Stuart-Glennie had ideas similar to Jaspers' Axial Age concept much earlier. Mumford learned about Stuart-Glennie's work through his friend, the sociologist Patrick Geddes.

Social and Political Involvement

Stuart-Glennie was also important in the early days of sociology. He was active in the Sociological Society of London. He was friends with early sociologists like Patrick Geddes and Victor Branford. Geddes wrote about Stuart-Glennie when he died in 1910. In 1906, Stuart-Glennie predicted a Russian revolution. He also thought Europe would transform into a "United States of Europe" by the year 2000. He was involved in trying to create a Celtic League in 1886. He also supported Scottish activism in the 1890s.

His Work on Folklore

Stuart-Glennie is remembered for his strong views on where folklore comes from. He even made up a new word, "koenononosography," in 1889. He presented a theory about the racial origins of folklore in 1891. Some 19th-century anthropologists, like Edward Burnett Tylor, thought mythical beings might be based on ancient "primitive" people. This led to the idea that myths and folklore contained ideas about different "races." Stuart-Glennie took this idea further. He suggested that "swan maidens" in stories were superior women from an ancient white race. He thought they married men from a darker-skinned race who were less civilized. This specific theory is not accepted today.

His Books

• In the Morningland or The law of the origin and transformation of Christianity (1873)
• New Philosophy of History (1873)
• Pilgrim-memories; or, Travel and discussion in the birth-countries of Christianity with the late Henry Thomas Buckle (1875)
• Isis Or, the Origin of Christianity: As a Verification of an Ultimate Law of History (1878)
• Europe and Asia, discussions of the Eastern question in travels through independent, Turkish, and Austrian Illyria (1879)
• The Archaian white races (1887, pamphlet)
• Greek folk-songs from the Ottoman provinces of Northern Hellas (1888)
• The women of Turkey and their folk-lore (1890, 2 volumes, with Lucy Garnett)
• Greek folk poesy; annotated translations from the whole cycle of Romaic folk-verse and folk-prose (1896, with Lucy Garnett)