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Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy Copyright C 2012 by the Publisher Spring of 1813, the Four Met for What They Called pdf version of the entry William Whewell http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2012/entries/whewell/ William Whewell from the Winter 2012 Edition of the First published Sat Dec 23, 2000; substantive revision Mon Nov 12, 2012 Stanford Encyclopedia William Whewell (1794–1866) was one of the most important and influential figures in nineteenth-century Britain. Whewell, a polymath, of Philosophy wrote extensively on numerous subjects, including mechanics, mineralogy, geology, astronomy, political economy, theology, educational reform, international law, and architecture, as well as the works that remain the most well-known today in philosophy of science, history of science, and moral philosophy. He was one of the founding members and Edward N. Zalta Uri Nodelman Colin Allen John Perry a president of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, a Principal Editor Senior Editor Associate Editor Faculty Sponsor fellow of the Royal Society, president of the Geological Society, and Editorial Board longtime Master of Trinity College, Cambridge. In his own time his http://plato.stanford.edu/board.html influence was acknowledged by the major scientists of the day, such as Library of Congress Catalog Data John Herschel, Charles Darwin, Charles Lyell and Michael Faraday, who ISSN: 1095-5054 frequently turned to Whewell for philosophical and scientific advice, and, Notice: This PDF version was distributed by request to mem- interestingly, for terminological assistance. Whewell invented the terms bers of the Friends of the SEP Society and by courtesy to SEP “anode,” “cathode,” and “ion” for Faraday. In response to a challenge by content contributors. It is solely for their fair use. Unauthorized the poet S.T. Coleridge in 1833, Whewell invented the English word distribution is prohibited. To learn how to join the Friends of the “scientist;” before this time the only terms in use were “natural SEP Society and obtain authorized PDF versions of SEP entries, philosopher” and “man of science”. Whewell was greatly influenced by please visit https://leibniz.stanford.edu/friends/ . his association with three of his fellow students at Cambridge: Charles Babbage, John Herschel, and Richard Jones. Over the winter of 1812 and Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy Copyright c 2012 by the publisher spring of 1813, the four met for what they called "Philosophical The Metaphysics Research Lab Breakfasts" at which they discussed induction and scientific method, Center for the Study of Language and Information Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305 among other topics (see Snyder, 2011). William Whewell Copyright c 2012 by the author Whewell is most known today for his massive works on the history and Laura J. Snyder philosophy of science. His philosophy of science was attacked by John All rights reserved. Stuart Mill in his System of Logic, causing an interesting and fruitful Copyright policy: https://leibniz.stanford.edu/friends/info/copyright/ debate between them over the nature of inductive reasoning in science, 1 William Whewell Laura J. Snyder moral philosophy, and political economy (for a detailed discussion of this allow him to attend the Heversham Grammar School in Westmorland, debate, see Snyder 2006). It is in the context of the debate over some twelve miles to the north, where he would be able to qualify for a philosophy of science that Whewell's philosophy was rediscovered in the closed exhibition to Trinity College, Cambridge. In the 19th century and 20th century by critics of logical positivism. In this entry, we shall focus earlier, these “closed exhibitions” or scholarships were set aside for the on the most important philosophical aspects of Whewell's works: his children of working class parents, to allow for some social mobility. philosophy of science, including his views of induction, confirmation, and Whewell studied at Haversham Grammar for two years, and received necessary truth; his view of the relation between scientific practice, private coaching in mathematics. Although he did win the exhibition it history of science, and philosophy of science; and his moral philosophy. did not provide full resources for a boy of his family's means to attend We shall spend the most time on his view of induction, as this is the most Cambridge; so money had to be raised in a public subscription to interesting and important part of his philosophy as well as the most supplement the scholarship money. misinterpreted. He thus came up to Trinity in 1812 as a “sub-sizar” (scholarship student). 1. Biography In 1814 he won the Chancellor's prize for his epic poem “Boadicea,” in 2. Philosophy of Science: Induction this way following in the footsteps of his mother, who had published 3. Philosophy of Science: Confirmation poems in the local papers. Yet he did not neglect the mathematical side of 4. Philosophy of Science: Necessary Truth his training; in 1816 he proved his mathematical prowess by placing as 5. The Relation Between Scientific Practice, History of Science, and both second Wrangler and second Smith's Prize man. The following year Philosophy of Science he won a college fellowship. He was elected to the Royal Society in 1820, 6. Moral Philosophy and ordained a priest (as required for Trinity Fellows) in 1825. He took up Bibliography the Chair in Mineralogy in 1828, and resigned it in 1832. In 1838 Primary Literature: Major Works by Whewell Whewell became Professor of Moral Philosophy. Almost immediately Secondary Literature after his marriage to Cordelia Marshall on 12 October 1841, he was Academic Tools named Master of Trinity College upon the recommendation of the Prime Other Internet Resources Minister Robert Peel. He was Vice-Chancellor of the University in 1842 Related Entries and again in 1855. In 1848 he played a large role in establishing the Natural and Moral Sciences Triposes at the University. His first wife died in 1855, and he remarried Lady Affleck, the sister of his friend Robert 1. Biography Ellis; Lady Affleck died in 1865. Whewell left no descendents when he died, after being thrown from his horse, on 6 March 1866. (More details Whewell was born in 1794, the eldest child of a master-carpenter in about Whewell's life and times can be found in Snyder 2011.) Lancaster. The headmaster of his local grammar school, a parish priest, recognized Whewell's intellectual abilities and persuaded his father to 2. Philosophy of Science: Induction 2 Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy Winter 2012 Edition 3 William Whewell Laura J. Snyder Fundamental Idea has certain “conceptions” included within it; these According to Whewell, all knowledge has both an ideal, or subjective conceptions are “special modifications” of the Idea applied to particular dimension, as well as an objective dimension. He called this the types of circumstances (1858b, 187). For example, the conception of “fundamental antithesis” of knowledge. Whewell explained that “in every force is a modification of the Idea of Cause, applied to the particular case act of knowledge … there are two opposite elements, which we may call of motion (see 1858a, I, 184–5 and 236). Ideas and Perceptions” (1860a, 307). He criticized Kant and the German Idealists for their exclusive focus on the ideal or subjective element, and Thus far, this discussion of the Fundamental Ideas may suggest that they Locke and the “Sensationalist School” for their exclusive focus on the are similar to Kant's forms of intuition, and indeed there are some empirical, objective element. Like Francis Bacon, Whewell claimed to be similarities. Because of this, some commentators argue that Whewell's seeking a “middle way” between pure rationalism and ultra-empiricism. epistemology is a type of Kantianism (see, e.g., Butts 1973, and Buchdahl Whewell believed that gaining knowledge requires attention to both ideal 1991). However, this interpretation ignores several crucial differences and empirical elements, to ideas as well as sensations. These ideas, which between the two views. Whewell did not follow Kant in drawing a he called “Fundamental Ideas,” are “supplied by the mind itself”—they distinction between “precepts,” or forms of intuition, such as Space and are not (as Mill and Herschel protested) merely received from our Time, and the categories, or forms of thought, in which Kant included the observations of the world. Whewell explained that the Fundamental Ideas concepts of Cause and Substance. Moreover, Whewell included as are “not a consequence of experience, but a result of the particular Fundamental Ideas many ideas which function not as conditions of constitution and activity of the mind, which is independent of all experience but as conditions for having knowledge within their respective experience in its origin, though constantly combined with experience in sciences: although it is certainly possible to have experience of the world its exercise” (1858a, I, 91). Consequently, the mind is an active without having a distinct idea of, say, Chemical Affinity, we could not participant in our attempts to gain knowledge of the world, not merely a have any knowledge of certain chemical processes without it. Unlike passive recipient of sense data. Ideas such as Space, Time, Cause, and Kant, Whewell did not attempt to give an exhaustive list of these Resemblance provide a structure or form for the multitude of sensations Fundamental Ideas; indeed, he believed that there are others which will we experience. The Ideas provide a structure by expressing the general emerge in the course of the development of science. Moreover, and relations that exist between our sensations (1847, I, 25). Thus, the Idea of perhaps most importantly for his philosophy of science, Whewell rejected Space allows us to apprehend objects as having form, magnitude, and Kant's claim that we can only have knowledge of our “categorized position. Whewell held, then, that observation is “idea-laden;” all experience.” The Fundamental Ideas, on Whewell's view, accurately observation, he noted, involves “unconscious inference” using the represent objective features of the world, independent of the processes of Fundamental Ideas (see 1858a, I, 46).
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