D. J. B. Hawkins

Denis John Bernard Hawkins (17 July 1906 – 16 January 1964) was a British philosopher and 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]

  1. ^ "Hawkins, Denis John Bernard". New Catholic Encyclopedia. The Gale Group, 2003.
  2. ^ a b c d e "Denis John Bernard Hawkins". Oxford Reference. Ed. Retrieved 18 Feb. 2019
  3. ^ Kneale, William. (1946). Reviewed Work: The Criticism of Experience by D. J. B. Hawkins. Philosophy 21 (79): 180–181.