Basil George Mitchell (9 April 1917 – 23 June 2011) was an English philosopher and at one time

Nolloth Professor of the Philosophy of the Christian Religion The Nolloth Professor of the Philosophy of the Christian Religion is a chair at the University of Oxford, associated with Oriel College, Oxford, Oriel College. The chair was established in 1920 by an endowment from Charles Frederick Nolloth, on ...

at the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

. Mitchell argued for the place of religious belief in public debate and criticised liberal humanism.

Background

Mitchell was the son of George William Mitchell and Mary Mitchell, née Loxston. He was educated at King Edward VI School, Southampton and

The Queen's College, Oxford The Queen's College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford, England. The college was founded in 1341 by Robert de Eglesfield in honour of Philippa of Hainault, queen of England. It is distinguished by its predominantly neoclassi ...

. His father was a disciple of the Sufi mystic

Inayat Khan Inayat Khan Rehmat Khan (; 5 July 1882 – 5 February 1927) was an Indian professor of musicology, singer, exponent of the saraswati vina, poet, philosopher, and pioneer of the transmission of Sufism to the West. At the urging of his students ...

. In 1940, Basil's family put up Khan's widow and children, including the future SOE agent

Noor Inayat Khan Noor-un-Nisa Inayat Khan, GC (1 January 1914 – 13 September 1944), also known as Nora Inayat-Khan and Nora Baker, was a British resistance agent in France in the Second World War who served in the Special Operations Executive (SOE). The purpo ...

, in their house in Southampton after the Khans arrived in England fleeing the German occupation of France. Basil was instrumental in introducing Jean Overton Fuller, Noor Inayat Khan's friend and biographer, to Noor. He served in the Royal Navy in 1940–1946, primarily as an instructor, in the Mediterranean. In 1950 he married Margaret Eleanor Collin. They had one son and three daughters.

Influence

In 1947, Mitchell embarked on an academic career as a tutor in philosophy at

Keble College, Oxford Keble College () is one of the Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. Its main buildings are on Parks Road, opposite the Oxford University Museum of Natural History, University Museum a ...

. In 1955 he was elected president of the Oxford Socratic Club, a position he held until 1972 when the club was dissolved. Later, Mitchell was instrumental in creating a new Oxford honours school devoted to philosophy and theology. Early books on the philosophy of religion and of law include ''Faith and Logic'' (1957) and the edited anthology ''Law, Morality and Religion in a Secular Society'' (1966), which was a contribution to the debate over law and morality between

H. L. A. Hart Herbert Lionel Adolphus Hart (; 18 July 190719 December 1992) was a British legal philosopher. One of the most influential legal theorists of the 20th century, he was instrumental in the development of the theory of legal positivism, which wa ...

and Patrick Devlin. He moved to

Oriel College, Oxford Oriel College () is Colleges of the University of Oxford, a constituent college of the University of Oxford in Oxford, England. Located in Oriel Square, the college has the distinction of being the oldest royal foundation in Oxford (a title for ...

in 1968 to take up a university chair. His inaugural lecture, "Neutrality and Commitment", attracted much favourable comment at the time. Later, Mitchell was instrumental in creating a new Oxford honours school devoted to philosophy and theology. Mitchell delivered the 1974–1976

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 ...

at the

University of Glasgow The University of Glasgow (abbreviated as ''Glas.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals; ) is a Public university, public research university in Glasgow, Scotland. Founded by papal bull in , it is the List of oldest universities in continuous ...

entitled ''Morality, Religious and Secular''. ''The Justification of Religious Belief'' (1981), his Sarum Lectures ''Faith and Criticism'' (1992), and a collection of essays called ''How to Play Theological Ping-Pong'' (1993). Mitchell edited a widely used "Oxford Reading in Philosophy" anthology: ''The Philosophy of Religion''. Mitchell's pamphlet entitled ''Can Social Policy Be Morally Neutral?'' was published by The Social Affairs Unit. He was prominent in the Church of England, and on several of its doctrinal commissions on faith and morals. In 2013, David Brown memorialized him in the ''Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the British Academy'', XI
303–321.
Two notable contributions to the philosophy of religion were his short essay in the "Theology and Falsification" debate between

Antony Flew Antony Garrard Newton Flew (; 11 February 1923 – 8 April 2010) was an English philosopher. Belonging to the analytic and evidentialist schools of thought, Flew worked on the philosophy of religion. During the course of his career he taught ...

R. M. Hare Richard Mervyn Hare (21 March 1919 – 29 January 2002), usually cited as R. M. Hare, was a British moral philosopher who held the post of White's Professor of Moral Philosophy at the University of Oxford from 1966 until 1983. He subseque ...

and himself, in which he tried to counter Flew's parable of the "invisible gardener" with his own "parable of the partisan", and his development of a "cumulative-case" method of justifying religious belief, notably in his book ''The Justification of Religious Belief''. Mitchell drew attention to the philosophy of

John Henry Newman John Henry Newman (21 February 1801 – 11 August 1890) was an English Catholic theologian, academic, philosopher, historian, writer, and poet. He was previously an Anglican priest and after his conversion became a cardinal. He was an ...

, notably in casting "doubt upon the credentials of science itself as an avenue to truth". He added: "The paradigm instance of factual knowledge, by comparison with which the claims of religion were thought to be problematic, can no longer be made to serve this purpose." He saw an analogy with "the situation in which Newman found himself as he struggled to analyse the nature of reason and its relation to Christian Faith."

Festschrift

Further contributions include an essay on "The Christian Conscience" to the ''Oxford Illustrated History of Christianity''. He wrote an autobiographical essay, "War and Friendship", for the Kelly James Clark anthology, ''Philosophers Who Believe''. In 2003, he co-wrote ''An Engagement with Plato's Republic'', with his Oxford friend and fellow philosopher

J. R. Lucas John Randolph Lucas (18 June 1929 – 5 April 2020) was a British philosopher. Biography Lucas was educated at Winchester College and then, as a pupil of R. M. Hare, R.M. Hare, among others, at Balliol College, Oxford. He studied first mathe ...

. Steven Holtzer and William Abraham co-edited a ''

Festschrift In academia, a ''Festschrift'' (; plural, ''Festschriften'' ) is a book honoring a respected person, especially an academic, and presented during their lifetime. It generally takes the form of an edited volume, containing contributions from the h ...

'' for him, ''The Rationality of Religious Belief'', which includes an appreciation of his thought and character by

Oliver O'Donovan Oliver Michael Timothy O'Donovan (born 28 June 1945) is a British Anglican priest and academic, known for his work in the field of Christian ethics. He has also made contributions to political theology, both contemporary and historical. He was ...

, and an essay on the Eucharist by

Michael Dummett Sir Michael Anthony Eardley Dummett (; 27 June 1925 – 27 December 2011) was an English academic described as "among the most significant British philosophers of the last century and a leading campaigner for racial tolerance and equality." H ...

. In 2009, he published a memoir, ''Looking Back: on Faith, Philosophy and Friends in Oxford''.Ongar, Essex: Memoir Club,

009 009 may refer to: * OO9, gauge model railways * O09, FAA identifier for Round Valley Airport * 0O9, FAA identifier for Ward Field, see List of airports in California * British secret agent 009, see 00 Agent * BA 009, see British Airways Flight ...

References

External links

Personal homepage
at Oxford University (includes a curriculum vitae and complete list of publications)
''Record''
on the

British Academy The British Academy for the Promotion of Historical, Philosophical and Philological Studies is the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and the social sciences. It was established in 1902 and received its royal charter in the sa ...

website
Basil George Mitchell
notes and biography by Dr Brannon Hancock, plus full text of his ''Morality, Religious and Secular'' on the

website * David Brown (2013).
Basil George Mitchell, 1917–2011
" ''Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the

'', XII, pp. 303–321 {{DEFAULTSORT:Mitchell, Basil 1917 births 2011 deaths People educated at King Edward VI School, Southampton Alumni of the Queen's College, Oxford Fellows of Keble College, Oxford Fellows of Oriel College, Oxford English Anglican theologians English Christian theologians Fellows of the British Academy Nolloth Professors of the Philosophy of the Christian Religion