D. J. B. Hawkins Explained

Denis John Bernard Hawkins (17 July 1906 – 16 January 1964) was a British philosopher and Roman Catholic priest.^[1]

Hawkins was born in Thornton Heath and attended Whitgift School, Croydon.^[2] He obtained his doctorates in philosophy (1927) and theology (1931) from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome.^[2]

He was ordained a Catholic priest in 1930 for the diocese of Southwark.^[2] He was a parish priest in Claygate in 1940 and received an honorary canon of the diocese of Southwark in 1956. Hawkins was a neo-Thomist and updated Thomism with modern thought.^[2] He was influenced by the realism of Thomas Aquinas, that the human mind can know external reality. He also defended a form of direct realism and an intuitive perception theory.^[2] In a review, William Kneale described Hawkins' The Criticism of Experience as a restatement of the Scottish common sense school.^[3]

Selected publications

• Causality and Implication (1937)
• Approach to Philosophy (1938)
• The Criticism of Experience (1945)
• A Sketch of Medieval Philosophy (1947, 1968)^[4]
• The Essentials of Theism (1950)^[5]
• Being and Becoming (1954)
• Crucial Problems of Modern Philosophy (1957)
• Man and Morals (1960)
• Christian Morality (1963)

Notes and References

1. https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/hawkins-denis-john-bernard "Hawkins, Denis John Bernard"
2. http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095925190 "Denis John Bernard Hawkins"
3. Kneale, William. (1946). Reviewed Work: The Criticism of Experience by D. J. B. Hawkins. Philosophy 21 (79): 180–181.
4. Carré, M. H. (1947). Reviewed Work: A Sketch of Mediaeval Philosophy by D. J. B. Hawkins. Philosophy 22 (81): 81–82.
5. Campbell, C. A. (1950). Reviewed Work: The Essentials of Theism by D. J. B. Hawkins. The Philosophical Quarterly 1 (1): 87–88.