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William Whewell (May 24, 1794
- March 6, 1866) was a British philosopher and historian of science.
Whewell was born at Lancaster in England. His father, a carpenter, wished him to follow his trade, but his success in mathematics at Lancaster and Heversham grammar
schools won him an exhibition at Trinity
College, Cambridge (1812). He was second wrangler in 1816, President of the
Cambridge Union Society in 1817, became fellow and
tutor of his college, and, in 1841, succeeded Dr Wordsworth as master. He was professor of mineralogy from 1828 to 1832, and of moral philosophy (then called "moral theology and casuistical divinity")
from 1838 to 1855.
Whewell was prominent not only in scientific research and philosophy, but also in university and college administration. His
first work, An Elementary Treatise on Mechanics (1819), co-operated with those of George Peacock and John Herschel in reforming the
Cambridge method of mathematical teaching; he influenced the recognition of the moral and natural sciences as an integral part of
the Cambridge curriculum (1850). In general, however, especially in later years, he opposed reform: he defended the tutorial system, and in a
controversy with Connop Thirlwall (1834), opposed the admission of
Dissenters; he upheld the clerical fellowship system, the privileged class of
"fellow-commoners," and the authority of heads of colleges in university affairs. He opposed the appointment of the University
Commission (1850), and wrote two pamphlets (Remarks) against the reform of the university (1855). He advocated as the
true reform, against the scheme of entrusting elections to the members of the senate, the use of college funds and the subvention
of scientific and professorial work.
In 1826 and 1828, Whewell was engaged with George Biddell
Airy in conducting experiments in Dolcoath mine, Cornwall, in order to
determine the density of the earth. Their labours were unsuccessful, and Whewell did little more in the way of experimental
science. He wrote an Essay on Mineralogical Classification, published in 1828, and contributed various memoirs on the
tides to the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society between 1833 and 1850. But it is on his History and
Philosophy of the Sciences that his claim to fame rests. The History of the Inductive Sciences, from the Earliest to the
Present Time appeared originally in 1837.
Whewell's wide, if superficial, acquaintance with various branches of science enabled him to write a comprehensive account of
their development, which is still valuable. He regarded the History as an introduction to the Philosophy of the
Inductive Sciences (1840). The latter treatise analyses the method exemplified in the formation of ideas, in the new
inductions of science, and in the applications and systematization of these inductions all exhibited bv the History in
the process of development. In the Philosophy, Whewell attempts to follow Francis Bacon's plan for discovery of an effectual art of discovery. He examines ideas ("explication of
conceptions") and by the " colligation of facts endeavours to unite these ideas to the facts and so construct science. But no art
of discovery, such as Bacon anticipated, follows, for "invention, sagacity, genius" are needed at each step. He analyses
induction into three steps:
- the selection of the (fundamental) idea, such as space, number, cause or likeness
- the formation of the conception, or more special modification of those ideas, as a circle, a uniform force, etc
- the determination of magnitudes.
Upon these follow special methods of induction applicable to quantity, viz., the method of curves, the method of means, the
method of least squares and the method of residues, and special methods depending on resemblance (to which the transition is made
through the law of continuity), viz. the method of gradation and the method of natural classification. In Philosophy of the
Inductive Sciences Whewell was the first to use the term "consilience"
to discuss the unification of knowledge between the different branches of learning.
Here, as in his ethical doctrine, Whewell was moved by opposition to contemporary
English empiricism. Following Immanuel Kant, he asserted against John Stuart Mill the a
priori nature of necessary truth, and by his rules for the construction of conceptions he dispensed with the inductive
methods of Mill.
Between 1835 and 1861 Whewell produced various works on the philosophy of morals and politics, the chief of which,
Elements of Morality, including Polity, was published in 1845. The peculiarity of this work--written, of
course, from what is known as the intuitional point of view--is its fivefold division of the springs of action and of their
objects, of the primary and universal rights of man (personal security, property, contract, family rights and government), and of
the cardinal virtues (benevolence, justice, truth, purity and order). Among Whewell's other works--too numerous to mention--were popular writings such as the
Bridgewater Treatise on Astronomy (1833), and the essay, Of the Plurality of Worlds (1854), in which he argued
against the probability of planetary life, and also to the Platonic Dialogues for
English Readers (1850-1861), to the Lectures on the History of Moral Philosophy in England (1852), to the essay,
Of a Liberal Education in General, with particular reference to the Leading Studies of the University of Cambridge
(1845), to the important edition and abridged translation of Hugo Grotius,
De jure belli et pads (1853), and to the edition of the Mathematical Works of Isaac Barrow (1860).
He died as a result of a fall from his horse.
Full bibliographical details are given by Isaac Todhunter, W. Whewell: an Account of his Writings (2 vols., 1876).
See also Life of W. Whewell, by Mrs Stair Douglas (1881).
This entry was originally from the 1911
Encyclopedia Britannica.
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