Arthur Balfour

1848-1930

     EDUCATED AT Trinity College, Cambridge. Devoted himself to philosophical studies for many years. First went to Parliament in 1876. Published A Defence of Philosophic Doubt in 1879, pleading for individual freedom of thought as against the increasing dogmatism of science. 

Through his sister, the wife of Prof. Henry Sidgwick, the first president of the SPR, he became interested in psychic phenomena and the question of survival in 1882.

In 1894 he occupied the presidential chair of the SPR. Especially interested in telepathy as it lent itself to experimental work. President of the SPR in 1893. President of the British Association in 1904. 

Served as the British Prime Minister from 1902 to 1905, also Secretary of State. His paper on the Ear of Dionysuis cross correspondence (attributed to the discarnate minds of Prof. Butcher and Prof. Verrall) which he read before the SPR in November, 1916, is a most constructive presentation of an excellent piece of evidence for survival.

Source (with minor modifications): An Encyclopaedia of Psychic Science by Nandor Fodor (1934).

Articles by Arthur Balfour on this website:

Presidential Address to the Society for Psychical Research

Science and Theology

Darwin

M. Bergson