Broad, Charlie Dunbar

(1887–1971)

English philosopher. Educated at Cambridge, Broad became a life Fellow of Trinity College, and was professor of moral philosophy at Cambridge from 1933 to 1953. His interests spanned almost the entire field of philosophy, and his extensive writings include works on relativity theory, ethics, the history of philosophy, and parapsychology. He maintained a traditional respect for the central problems of modern philosophy, and his lucid works exhibit a scrupulous attention to the variety of possible solutions and their difficulties. The attitude gave him a wry scepticism of philosophical fashions, particularly those associated with the more impressionistic approach of the later Wittgenstein . A characteristic expression of his stance was that on the issue of life after death we can only wait and see, or alternatively, which is no less likely, wait and not see. His main works include Mind and its Place in Nature (1925) and the two-volume Examination of McTaggart's Philosophy (1933–8).