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Maurice William Cranston was an English philosopher, professor, and author. He served for many years as Professor of Political Science at the London School of Economics, and was also known for his popular publications. In the late 1970s and early 1980s he was Professor of Political Theory at the European University Institute in Florence.
He was born at 53 Harringay Road Harringay and educated at South Harringay School, the University of London and the St Catherine's College, Oxford. As a young man, Cranston was a friend of the painter Denton Welch. During the Second World War, Cranston was a conscientious objector, active in the Peace Pledge Union, and a "frequent contributor" to its newspaper Peace News.
Cranston's major works include biographies of John Locke, for which he received the 1957 James Tait Black Memorial Prize, and Rousseau, Jean-Paul Sartre, and others addressing the history of liberty. He contributed to many publications in both Britain and the United States and wrote scripts for the BBC. In 1946 two of his detective novels were published by John Westhouse: Tomorrow We'll Be Sober and Philosopher's Hemlock.
Cranston's intellectual abilities were varied. His first academic book, Freedom: A New Analysis, covered history, politics and a philosophical attempt to resolve or at least elucidate freedom of the will. The philosophical section was the least successful; and Cranston never again attempted pure philosophy. His main academic strengths were as a biographer and as an intellectual historian.
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