Sir John Arthur Thomson (8 July 1861 – 12 February 1933) was a British

naturalist Natural history is a domain of inquiry involving organisms, including animals, fungi, and plants, in their natural environment, leaning more towards observational than experimental methods of study. A person who studies natural history is cal ...

who authored several books and was an expert on

soft coral Alcyonacea is the old scientific order name for the informal group known as "soft corals". It is now an unaccepted name for class Octocorallia. It became deprecated . The following text should be considered a historical, outdated way of treatin ...

Life

Thomson was born at Pilmuir east of East Saltoun,

East Lothian East Lothian (; ; ) is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland, as well as a Counties of Scotland, historic county, registration county and Lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area. The county was called Haddingtonshire until 1921. In ...

, the second son of Isabella Landsborough (1828-1905) and the Rev Arthur Thomson (1823-1881), a minister in the Free Church of Scotland, originally from

Muckhart Muckhart () commonly refers to two small villages in Clackmannanshire, Scotland, Pool of Muckhart () and Yetts o' Muckhart. Muckhart is one of the Hillfoots Villages, situated on the A91 road, A91 around northeast of Dollar, Clackmannanshire, ...

. He studied natural history at the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh (, ; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a Public university, public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded by the City of Edinburgh Council, town council under th ...

graduating with an MA in 1880. He had already established a reputation as a worthy scientist within his first years and in 1887, aged 25, he was elected a

Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy of science and Literature, letters, judged to be "eminently distinguished in their subject". ...

. His proposers were

Patrick Geddes Sir Patrick Geddes (2 October 1854 – 17 April 1932) was a Scottish biologist, sociologist, Comtean positivist, geographer, philanthropist and pioneering town planner. He is known for his innovative thinking in the fields of urban plannin ...

J. T. Cunningham Joseph Thomas Cunningham (1859–1935) was a British marine biologist and zoologist known for his experiments on flatfish and his writings on neo-Lamarckism. Career Cunningham worked at the London Hospital Medical College. He completed his scienc ...

, Sir John Murray and Robert McNair Ferguson. He taught at the

Royal (Dick) Veterinary College The Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, commonly referred to as the Dick Vet, is the University of Edinburgh's vet school. It is part of the College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine. In a joint submission to the latest UK Research ...

from 1893 until 1899 then

University of Aberdeen The University of Aberdeen (abbreviated ''Aberd.'' in List of post-nominal letters (United Kingdom), post-nominals; ) is a public university, public research university in Aberdeen, Scotland. It was founded in 1495 when William Elphinstone, Bis ...

from 1899 until 1930 as

Regius Professor of Natural History (Aberdeen) The Regius Professor of Natural History is a Regius Professorship at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland. It was originally called the Regius Professor of Civil and Natural History at Marischal College until in 1860 Marischal College and King' ...

, the year he was knighted. His popular works aimed to reconcile science and religion. Thomson's ''Outline of Science'', published in 1922, sold more than one hundred thousand copies in five years.Rhees, David J (1979)
THE NEW PUBLIC INTEREST IN SCIENCE (CHAPTER I - PART III)
via Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved December 22, 2006. He lived at 15 Chanonry in Aberdeen. John Arthur Thomson grave

In his

Gifford lectures The Gifford Lectures () are an annual series of lectures which were established in 1887 by the will of Adam Gifford, Lord Gifford at the four ancient universities of Scotland: St Andrews, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Edinburgh. Their purpose is to "pro ...

and a number of books written with his friend

he argued for a form of

holistic Holism is the interdisciplinary idea that systems possess properties as wholes apart from the properties of their component parts. Julian Tudor Hart (2010''The Political Economy of Health Care''pp.106, 258 The aphorism "The whole is greater than t ...

biology in which the activity of the living

organism An organism is any life, living thing that functions as an individual. Such a definition raises more problems than it solves, not least because the concept of an individual is also difficult. Many criteria, few of them widely accepted, have be ...

could transcend the physical laws governing its component parts. Some had termed the work of Geddes and Thomson as neovitalist though the position presented in their books is more closer to

panpsychism In philosophy of mind, panpsychism () is the view that the mind or a mind-like aspect is a fundamental and ubiquitous feature of reality. It is also described as a theory that "the mind is a fundamental feature of the world which exists throug ...

as Thomson had claimed that mind can not emerge from matter and that it has existed in nature all the time. Thomson had believed there was life at all levels, he wrote that "there is nothing inanimate". He had however found the

vitalist Vitalism is a belief that starts from the premise that "living organisms are fundamentally different from non-living entities because they contain some non-physical element or are governed by different principles than are inanimate things." Wher ...

ideas of

Henri Bergson Henri-Louis Bergson (; ; 18 October 1859 – 4 January 1941) was a French philosopher who was influential in the traditions of analytic philosophy and continental philosophy, especially during the first half of the 20th century until the S ...

inspirational. According to

Peter J. Bowler Peter J. Bowler (born 8 October 1944) is a historian of biology who has written extensively on the history of evolutionary thought, the history of the environmental sciences, and on the history of genetics. His 1984 book, ''Evolution: The H ...

, Thomson was a popular science writer who had promoted a nonmaterialist interpretation of science though his interpretation was not accepted by all within the scientific community as some had claimed his views were neovitalist and thus outdated. Thomson had also promoted the importance of

symbiosis Symbiosis (Ancient Greek : living with, companionship < : together; and ''bíōsis'': living) is any type of a close and long-term biological interaction, between two organisms of different species. The two organisms, termed symbionts, can fo ...

and

cooperation Cooperation (written as co-operation in British English and, with a varied usage along time, coöperation) takes place when a group of organisms works or acts together for a collective benefit to the group as opposed to working in competition ...

in nature as opposed to the idea of struggle. While at the University of Aberdeen Thomson supervised the research of respected

carcinologist This is a list of notable carcinologists. A carcinologist is a scientist who studies crustaceans or is otherwise involved in carcinology (the science of crustaceans). References

{{Reflist, 24em Carcinologists, . Lists of zoologists, Carcino ...

Isabella Gordon Isabella Gordon OBE Zoological Society of London, FZS Linnean Society of London, FLS (18 May 1901 – 11 May 1988) was a Scottish marine biologist who specialised in carcinology and was an expert in crabs and sea spiders. She worked at the Natu ...

. He was knighted in 1930 by King

George V George V (George Frederick Ernest Albert; 3 June 1865 – 20 January 1936) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 until Death and state funeral of George V, his death in 1936. George w ...

. He died at home, St Mary's Lodge in

Limpsfield Limpsfield is a village and civil parish in Surrey, England, at the foot of the North Downs close to Oxted railway station and the A25 road, A25.Surrey Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...

Family

In 1889 he married Margaret Robertson Stewart and they were parents to the

ornithologist Ornithology, from Ancient Greek ὄρνις (''órnis''), meaning "bird", and -logy from λόγος (''lógos''), meaning "study", is a branch of zoology dedicated to the study of birds. Several aspects of ornithology differ from related discip ...

Arthur Landsborough Thomson Sir Arthur Landsborough Thomson CB OBE FRSE PZS LLD (8 October 1890 – 9 June 1977) was a Scottish medical researcher, mainly remembered as an amateur ornithologist and ornithological author and acknowledged expert on bird migration. Life He ...

, who wrote a short biography about his father in ''School Nature Study,'' April 1944. His younger brother was the zoologist

James Stuart Thomson James Stuart Thomson FRSE FLS (21 July 1868 – 28 August 1932) was a 19th/20th century British zoologist. He was an expert on the tortoise. Life He was born on 21 July 1868 at Pilmuir near East Saltoun in East Lothian, the youngest son and ...

FRSE Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy of science and Literature, letters, judged to be "eminently distinguished in their subject". ...

Selected publications

*''Parasitism: Organic and Social'' (1895) *''Progress of Science in the Century'' (1903) *''Heredity'' (1908)
''Darwinism and Human Life''
(1909) *''Evolution'' (1912 - with

) *''Problems of Sex'' (1912) *''Zoological Studies'' (1911-1915) *''The Outline of Science '' ditor(4 vol., 1922; repr. 1937) *''What Is Man?'' (1923) *''Science and Religion'' (1925) *''The Minds Of Animals: An Introduction To The Study Of Animal Behaviour'' (1927) *''Modern Science'' (1929) *''Life: Outlines of General Biology'' (1931) *''Riddles of Science'' (1932) *''Biology for Everyman'' (1933 - published posthumously)

References

External links

* * *
Portrait of Sir John Arthur Thomson
{{DEFAULTSORT:Thomson, Arthur 1861 births 1933 deaths Academics of the University of Aberdeen Academics of the University of Edinburgh Animal cognition writers Knights Bachelor Panpsychism Scottish nature writers Scottish naturalists Vitalists