Monro, David Hector

Positions summary

Foundation Chair of Philosophy, 1961-1976; Emeritus Professor 1977.

Biography

David Monro was born in Whangarei, New Zealand in 1911. After attending Auckland Grammar School he gained a MA at the University of New Zealand graduating with second class honours in English and completing a further course in Philosophy in 1935. During his final year he acted as an honorary tutor in Philosophy and in 1937 as a temporary lecturer in English. After working as a librarian he was appointed to a lectureship in Philosophy at the University of Otago in 1947. From there he moved to the Philosophy Department at the University of Sydney where he worked as a Senior Lecturer until being appointed to the Foundation Chair of Philosophy at Monash in 1961. 

Monro spent two periods in study and writing at Oxford, in 1951-52 as a Nuffield Foundation Fellow, and again in 1957. While his early research interest was in aesthetics and he wrote an article on humour for Collier's Encyclopaedia, over the following years his interest turned to moral and political theory. Professor Monro was awarded a Commonwealth Fellowship at St John's College Cambridge for 1965 and a Canadian Commonwealth Fellowship in 1972-73.

After retiring at the end of 1976 Council conferred on him the title of Professor Emeritus in recognition of distinguished academic service. He continued to be actively engaged in philosophy and was considered by his colleagues to be one of the leading ethical philosophers in the country. He was a Visiting Fellow at LaTrobe University in 1977 and was re-elected to the Monash Council in the same year as Faculty of Arts representative. Professor Monro was invited back to Monash to teach on a casual basis in 1979 and 1980, and in 1981 was appointed to the newly constituted Standing Committee on Ethics in Animal Experimentation. Professor Monro has published numerous articles and monographs including: Argument of Laughter (1951, 1963) Godwin's Moral Philosophy (1953, 1978) Empiricism and Ethics (1967) A Guide to the British Moralists (1972) The Ambivalence of Bernard Mandeville (1975) Ethics and the Environment (1980, 1984) The Sonneteer's History of Philosophy (1981) Don Juan in Australia (1986)

Papers

Files related to Monash University 1961-1970
Includes papers related to the drafting of a new Discipline Statute, and issues of early student and staff publications, including programs for productions by the Monash Players.

Freedom to Read Association papers 1964-1971
Association formed at Monash by group of prominent Victorians in 1964, in response to concerns over censorship. Prof. Monro served as President. Files include correspondence, newsletters, newspapers cuttings and other relevant reports and publications.

Manuscript material and offprints 1928-1997
Typed and handwritten mss, and offprints of journal articles published 1950-1995. Series includes contributions to early student publications in 1920s and 1930s, and copy of Prof. Monro's MA thesis (1935).

Notes for talks and lectures 1935-1980
Files, most undated, related to talks and lectures delivered in the Philosophy department at Monash and elsewhere.

Personal papers and correspondence 1933-1996
Personal papers including documents and photographs related to Monro's wartime detention in New Zealand; correspondence with friends and colleagues; and correspondence related to publication of 'Fortunate Catastrophes' and 'Ethics and the Environment'.