Andries Mac Leod was born in Ledeberg, a suburb of Ghent, as a son of Julius Mac Leod, a botanist and professor at Ghent University, and of Fanny Mac Leod born Maertens, who was translator from English into Dutch of two books by
Kropotkin.
While Mac Leod was attending the atheneum in Ghent, he already got interested in philosophy and he was one of the founders of a Wijsgerige Kring (philosophical circle) there. One of the other members of this circle was
Marcel Minnaert, with whom he maintained a lifelong friendship.
In 1921 Mac Leod returned to Belgium, where he became a high school teacher in mathematics and physics, first in Diest and later in Ghent. In 1922 he married with Gunhild Sahlén, whom he had met during his stay in Sweden. In that year also his first book appeared, an introduction to non-Euclidean geometry (Mac Leod 1922). In 1927 his first philosophical monograph (Mac Leod 1927) was published.
Mac Leod, A. (1922), Introduction à la géometrie non-euclidienne, Paris: J. Hermann, p. 433, JFM48.0633.03
Mac Leod, A. (1923), "Over een geval van wenteling eener ideale vloeistof, waarbij negatieve drukkingen optreden" [On a case of rotation of an ideal fluid, where negative pressures occur], Wis- en Natuurkundig Tijdschrift (in Dutch), 2: 22–60
Mac Leod, A. (1927), Sur diverses questions se présentant dans l'étude du concept de réalité, Paris: J. Hermann, p. 239
Mac Leod, A. (1960), Beskaffenhet och innehåll av ett medvetande [The nature and content of a consciousness] (in Swedish), Uppsala: Kungl. Humanistiska Vetenskaps-Samfundet, p. 569
Mac Leod, A. (1972), Verklighet och negation [Reality and negation] (in Swedish), Stockholm and Uppsala: Almqvist & Wiksell, p. 1324
References
Buning, L. (1977), "Van en over wijlen Dr. Andries Mac Leod (1891–1977)" (in Dutch), Wetenschappelijke tijdingen36, nr. 3: 129–144
Dahlquist, T. (1980), "Andries Mac Leod (1891–1977) In memoriam", Theoria46: 1–4
Henschen-Dahlquist, A.-M., ed. (1980), "Writings of Andries Mac Leod", Theoria46: 5–6
Henschen-Dahlquist, A.-M., ed. (1966) (in Swedish), Analyser och argument. Filosofiska uppsatser tillägnade Andries MacLeod (Analyses and arguments. Philosophical essays dedicated to Andries Mac Leod), Uppsala Philosophical Studies, vol. 4, Department of Philosophy, University of Uppsala