James Black Baillie
Sir James Black Baillie, was a British moral philosopher and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Leeds. He provided the first significant translation of Hegel's "Phenomenology of Mind". He is said to be the model for the character Sir John Evans in the novel The Weight of the Evidence by Michael Innes.
Life and works
Baillie was born in West Mill, Cortachy, Forfarshire. He studied at the University of Edinburgh, where he gained a PhD in 1899 on The Growth of Hegel's Logic, and Trinity College, Cambridge. Baillie lectured in philosophy at University College, Dundee and in August 1902 was appointed Regius Professor of Moral Philosophy at the University of Aberdeen. In 1906 Baillie married Helena May James. They had no children.During the First World War he was in the intelligence division of the British Admiralty. After public service posts, Baillie was Vice-Chancellor of the University of Leeds from 1924 to his retirement in 1938.
Baillie died of prostate cancer in Weybridge, Surrey in 1940 at the age of 67.