Margaret Knight (psychologist)

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Margaret Kennedy Knight (nee Horsey), (1903 – 1983), was a psychologist and humanist. Born in Hertfordshire, England, Knight went to Girton College, Cambridge University, graduating in 1926. In 1948 she gained a Master's degree.

It was in her third year at Cambridge that she found the "moral courage", as she put it, to finally abandon the religious beliefs she had long been uneasy with. In the preface to her book Morals Without Religion (1955), she wrote, "a fresh, cleansing wind swept through the stuffy room that contained the relics of my religious beliefs. I let them go with a profound sense of relief, and ever since I have lived happily without them."

Knight worked as a librarian, information officer and editor for the National Institute of Industrial Psychology.

With her husband Arthur Rex Knight, who she married in 1936, Knight wrote A Modern Introduction to Psychology (1948), which went through many editions. From 1936 - 1970, Knight lectured in psychology at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland.

An advocate of Scientific Humanism, Knight gave two short radio talks on the BBC Home Service in 1955 under the title Morals Without Religion. The first talk was broadcast on 5 January and caused a storm of controversy. The Sunday Graphic headline described her as "The Unholy Mrs. Knight", and called her "a menace".

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[edit] Publications

Honest to Man: Christian ethics reexamined (1974). London: Elek/Pemberton. ISBN 0-236-31002-X
Christianity: the debit account (1973). London: National Secular Society. (pamphlet)
Humanist Anthology: from Confucius to Bertrand Russell (1961). London: Barrie and Rockliff. (Editor)
Morals without religion : and other essays (1955). London: Dobson. (Includes the text of the two BBC talks)
A Modern Introduction to Psychology (with Rex Knight) (1st edition, 1948). London: University Tutorial Press.