Sir James Black Baillie, OBE (24 October 1872 – 9 June 1940) was a British moral philosopher and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Leeds. He wrote 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 (1944) by Michael Innes.[1]
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,[2] and Trinity College, Cambridge.[3]
Baillie lectured in philosophy at University College, Dundee and in August 1902 was appointed Regius Professor of Moral Philosophy at the University of Aberdeen.[4][5]
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 was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 1919 New Year Honours,[6] made a Knight Commander of the Order of the Crown of Italy following a meeting with Italian leader Benito Mussolini[1] and received a knighthood in 1931.[7]
In 1906 Baillie married Helena May James. They had no children.[1]
Baillie died of prostate cancer in Weybridge, Surrey in 1940 at the age of 67.[1]
