William Whewell

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William Whewell

William Whewell (May 24, 1794 – March 6, 1866) was an English polymath

Polymath

A polymath is a person whose knowledge is not restricted to one subject area. In less formal terms, a polymath may simply refer to someone who is very knowledgeable....
, scientist

Scientist

A scientist, in the broadest sense, refers to any person that engages in a system activity to acquire knowledge or an individual that engages in such practices and traditions that are linked to schools of thought or philosophy....
, Anglican priest

Priest

A priest or priestess is a person having the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particular, rites of sacrifice to, and propitiation of, a deity or deities....
, philosopher, theologian, and historian of science

History of science

Science is a body of empirical knowledge, theory, and Procedural knowledge knowledge about the Nature, produced by a global community of researchers making use of scientific methods, which emphasize the observation, experimentation and scientific explanation of real world phenomenon....
. His surname is pronounced "hew-el."

Life and career
Whewell was born in Lancaster, England

England

native_name =|conventional_long_name = England|common_name = England|image_flag = Flag of England.svg|image_coat = England COA.svg|symbol_type = Royal Coat of Arms...
. His father, a carpenter, wished him to follow his trade, but his success in mathematics

Mathematics

Mathematics is the study of quantity, structure, space, change, and related topics of pattern and form. Mathematicians seek out patterns whether found in numbers, space, natural science, computers, imaginary abstractions, or elsewhere....
at Lancaster and Heversham grammar school

Grammar school

A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and other English-speaking countries....
s won him an exhibition

Exhibition (scholarship)

At the universities of University of Dublin, University of Oxford and University of Cambridge, and at Westminster School and Winchester College, and various other UK educational establishments, an exhibition is a financial award or grant to an individual student, normally on grounds of merit....
(a type of scholarship) at Trinity College, Cambridge

Trinity College, Cambridge

Trinity College is one of the 31 Colleges of the University of Cambridge of the University of Cambridge. Trinity has more members than any other college in Cambridge or University of Oxford, with around 700 undergraduates, 430 graduate students, and over 160 Fellows; however, counting only the student body it has somewhat fewer than Homert...
(1812). In 1814 he was awarded the Chancellor's Gold Medal

Chancellor's Gold Medal

The Chancellor's Gold Medal is a prestigious annual award at Cambridge University for poetry, paralleling Oxford University's Newdigate prize. It was first presented by Prince William Frederick, Duke of Gloucester and Edinburgh during his time as List of Chancellors of the University of Cambridge....
for poetry.

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Quotations

In art, truth is a means to an end; in science, it is the only end.

Aphorism 25

It is a test of true theories not only to account for but to predict phenomena.

Aphorism 39

Man is the interpreter of nature, science the right interpretation.

Aphorism 17

The catastrophist constructs theories, the uniformitarian demolishes them.

Aphorism 36

And so no force however great can stretch a cord however fine into an horizontal line which is accurately straight.

Elementary Treatise on Mechanics, The Equilibrium of Forces on a Point (1819)

Encyclopedia

William Whewell (May 24, 1794 – March 6, 1866) was an English polymath

Polymath

A polymath is a person whose knowledge is not restricted to one subject area. In less formal terms, a polymath may simply refer to someone who is very knowledgeable....
, scientist

Scientist

Priest

History of science

Life and career

Whewell was born in Lancaster, England

England

Mathematics

Grammar school

A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and other English-speaking countries....
s won him an exhibition

Exhibition (scholarship)

Trinity College, Cambridge

Chancellor's Gold Medal

Cambridge Union Society

The Cambridge Union Society, commonly referred to simply as the Cambridge Union, is a Debate society in Cambridge, England and is the largest society at the University of Cambridge....
in 1817, became fellow and tutor of his college, and, in 1841, succeeded Dr Christopher Wordsworth

Christopher Wordsworth (Trinity)

Christopher Wordsworth , was an English Anglican terminology and scholar.Born in Cockermouth, Cumberland, he was the youngest brother of the poet William Wordsworth, and was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he became a fellow in 1798....
as master. He was professor

Professor

The meaning of the word professor varies. In some English-speaking countries, it refers to a senior academic who holds a departmental chair, especially as head of the Academic department, or a personal chair awarded specifically to that individual....
of mineralogy

Mineralogy

Mineralogy is an Earth Science focused around the chemistry, crystal structure, and physical properties of minerals. Specific studies within mineralogy include the processes of mineral origin and formation, classification of minerals, their geographical distribution, as well as their utilization....
from 1828 to 1832 and Knightbridge Professor of Philosophy

Knightbridge Professor of Philosophy

The Knightbridge Professorship of Philosophy is the senior professorship in Faculty of philosophy cambridge at the University of Cambridge.One of the oldest List_of_Professorships_at_the_University_of_Cambridge, the chair was founded in 1683 by John Knightbridge, fellow of Peterhouse, Cambridge....
(then called "moral theology and casuistical divinity") from 1838 to 1855.

Whewell died in Cambridge 1866 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).

Scientific generalist

Multiple disciplines

What is most often remarked about Whewell is the breadth of his endeavours. At a time when men of science were becoming increasingly specialised, Whewell appears as a vestige of an earlier era when men of science dabbled in a bit of everything. He researched ocean tides (for which he won the Royal Medal), published work in the disciplines of mechanics

Mechanics

Mechanics is the branch of physics concerned with the behaviour of physical body when subjected to forces or Displacement , and the subsequent effect of the bodies on their environment....
, physics

Physics

Physics is the natural science which examines basic concepts such as energy, force, and spacetime and all that derives from these, such as mass, charge, matter and its Motion ....
, geology

Geology

Geology is the science and study of the solid and liquid matter that constitute the Earth. The field of geology encompasses the study of the composition, structural geology, physical properties, dynamics, and History of the Earth of Earth materials, and the processes by which they are formed, moved, and changed....
, astronomy

Astronomy

Astronomy is the science of Astronomical object and Phenomenon that originate outside the Earth's atmosphere . It is concerned with the evolution, physics, chemistry, meteorology, and motion of celestial objects, as well as the physical cosmology....
, and economics

Economics

File:Ballard Farmers' Market - vegetables.jpgEconomics is the Social sciences that studies the Production theory basics, Distribution , and Consumption of Good and Service ....
, while also finding the time to compose poetry

Poetry

Poetry is a form of literature art in which language is used for its aesthetics and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning ....
, author a Bridgewater Treatise, translate the works of Goethe, and write sermon

Sermon

A sermon is an public speaking by a prophet or member of the clergy. Sermons address a Bible, Theology, Religion, or Morality topic, usually expounding on a type of belief, law or Human behavior within both past and present contexts....
s and theological

Theology

Theology is the study of the existence or attributes of a deity or gods, or more generally the study of religion or spirituality. It is sometimes contrasted with religious studies: theology is understood as the study of religion from an internal perspective , and religious studies as the study of religion from an external perspective....
tracts.

Tracing the history and development of science

For all these pursuits, it comes as no surprise that his best-known works are two voluminous books which attempt to map and systematize the development of the sciences, History of the Inductive Sciences (1837) and The Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences, Founded Upon Their History (1840). While the History traced how each branch of the sciences had evolved since antiquity, Whewell viewed the Philosophy

Philosophy

Philosophy is the study of general problems concerning matters such as existence, knowledge, truth, beauty, justice, validity, mind, and language....
as the “Moral” of the previous work as it sought to extract a universal theory of knowledge through the history he had just traced. In the Philosophy, Whewell attempted to follow Francis Bacon's plan for discovery of an effectual art of discovery. He examined ideas ("explication of conceptions") and by the "colligation of facts" endeavoured to unite these ideas with 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.

Whewell's three steps of induction

Whewell analysed inductive reasoning

Inductive reasoning

Induction or inductive reasoning, sometimes called inductive logic, is reasoning which takes us "beyond the confines of our current evidence or knowledge to conclusions about the unknown." The premises of an inductive logical argument support the conclusion but do not entailment it; i.e....
into three steps:

The selection of the (fundamental) idea, such as space, number, cause, or likeness (resemblance);
The formation of the conception, or more special modification of those ideas, as a circle, a uniform force, etc.; and,
The determination of magnitudes.

Upon these follow special methods of induction applicable to quantity: 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), such as 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

Consilience

Consilience, or the unity of knowledge , has its roots in the ancient Greek philosophy of an intrinsic orderliness that governs our cosmos, inherently comprehensible by logical process, a vision at odds with mystical views in many cultures that surrounded the Hellenes....
" to discuss the unification of knowledge between the different branches of learning.

Opponent of English empiricism

Here, as in his ethical

Ethics

Ethics is a word for a philosophy that encompasses proper conduct and good living. It is significantly broader than the common conception of ethics as the analyzing of right and wrong....
doctrine, Whewell was moved by opposition to contemporary English empiricism

Empiricism

In philosophy, empiricism is a theory of knowledge which asserts that knowledge arises from experience. Empiricism is one of several competing views about how we know "things," part of the branch of philosophy called epistemology, or "theory of knowledge"....
. Following Immanuel Kant

Immanuel Kant

Immanuel Kant was an 18th-century German Philosophy from the Kingdom of Prussia city of K?nigsberg . He is regarded as one of the most influential thinkers of modern Europe and of the late Age of Enlightenment....
, he asserted against John Stuart Mill

John Stuart Mill

John Stuart Mill , United Kingdom philosopher, political economy, civil servant and Parliament of the United Kingdom, was an influential liberalism thinker of the 19th century....
the a priori
A priori and a posteriori (philosophy)

The terms "a priori" and "a posteriori" are used in philosophy to distinguish two types of knowledge, justifications or arguments....
nature of necessary truth, and by his rules for the construction of conceptions he dispensed with the inductive methods of Mill.

Whewell's neologisms

One of Whewell's greatest gifts to science was his wordsmithing. He often corresponded with many in his field and helped them come up with new terms

Neologism

A neologism is a newly coined word that may be in the process of entering common use, but has not yet been accepted into mainstream language . Neologisms are often directly attributable to a specific person, publication, period, or event....
for their discoveries. In fact, Whewell came up with the term scientist
Scientist

A scientist, in the broadest sense, refers to any person that engages in a system activity to acquire knowledge or an individual that engages in such practices and traditions that are linked to schools of thought or philosophy....
itself. (They had previously been known as "natural philosophers" or "men of science"). Whewell also contributed the terms physicist

Physicist

A physicist is a scientist who studies or practices physics. Physicists study a wide range of physical phenomena in many Physics#Major fields of physics spanning all length scales: from atom particles of which all ordinary matter is made to the behavior of the material Universe as a whole ....
, consilience

Consilience

Catastrophism

Catastrophism is the idea that Earth has been affected in the past by sudden, short-lived, violent events, possibly worldwide in scope.The dominant paradigm of modern geology, in contrast, is uniformitarianism , in which slow incremental changes, such as erosion, create the Earth's appearance....
, and uniformitarianism

Uniformitarianism (science)

Uniformitarianism, in the philosophy of science, assumes that the natural processes that operated in the past are the same as those that can be observed operating in the present....
, amongst others; Whewell suggested the terms anode

Anode

An anode is an electrode through which electric charge flows into a polarized electrical device. Mnemonic: ACID . Electrons flow in the opposite direction to the positive electric current....
and cathode

Cathode

A cathode is an electrode through which electric charge flows out of a polarized electrical device. Mnemonic: CCD .From an electrochemical point of view, positively charged ion invariably move toward the cathode and/or negatively charged ion move away from it to balance the electrons arriving from external circuitry....
to Michael Faraday

Michael Faraday

Michael Faraday, Fellow of the Royal Society was an English chemist and physicist who contributed to the fields of electromagnetism and electrochemistry....
; this terminology persists in electrical technology to this day.

Work in college administration

Whewell was prominent not only in scientific research and philosophy, but also in university

University

A university is an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees in a variety of subjects. A university provides both undergraduate education and postgraduate education....
and college administration. His first work, An Elementary Treatise on Mechanics (1819), cooperated with those of George Peacock

George Peacock

George Peacock was an England mathematician....
and John Herschel

John Herschel

Sir John Frederick William Herschel, 1st Baronet Royal Guelphic Order, Fellow of the Royal Society was an England mathematician, astronomer, chemist, and experimental photographer/inventor, who in some years also did valuable botanical work....
in reforming the Cambridge method of mathematical teaching. His work and publications also helped influence the recognition of the moral and natural sciences as an integral part of the Cambridge curriculum. In general, however, especially in later years, he opposed reform: he defended the tutorial system

Tutorial system

At both University of Cambridge and University of Oxford, undergraduates are taught in the tutorial system. Students are taught by faculty fellows in groups of one to three....
, and in a controversy with Connop Thirlwall

Connop Thirlwall

Connop Thirlwall was an England bishop and historian.Thirlwall was born at Stepney, London, of a Northumbrian family. He was a prodigy, learning Latin at three, Greek language at four, and writing sermons at seven....
(1834), opposed the admission of Dissenter

Dissenter

The term dissenter , labels one who dissents or disagrees in matters of opinion, belief, etc. In the social and religious history of England and Wales, however, it refers particularly to a member of a religious body in England or Wales who has, for one reason or another, separated from the Established Church....
s; 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 stood against the scheme of entrusting elections to the members of the senate and instead, advocated the use of college funds and the subvention of scientific and professorial work.

Whewell's interests in architecture

Aside from Science, Whewell was also interested in the history of architecture

History of architecture

The history of architecture traces the changes in the history of architecture through various countries and dates....
throughout his life. He is best known for his writings on Gothic architecture

Gothic architecture

Gothic architecture is a style of architecture which flourished during the high and late Middle Ages. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture....
, specifically his book, Architectural Notes on German Churches (first published in 1830). In this work, Whewell established a strict nomenclature for German Gothic churches and came up with a theory of stylistic development. His work is associated with the "scientific trend" of architectural writers, along with Thomas Rickman

Thomas Rickman

Thomas Rickman , was an England architect who was a major figure in the Gothic Revival.He was born at Maidenhead, into a large Quaker family, and avoided the medical career envisaged for him by his father, a grocer and druggist; he went into business for himself and married his first cousin Lucy Rickman in 1804, a marriage that estranged hi...
and Robert Willis.

Whewell's works in philosophy and morals

Between 1835 and 1861 Whewell produced various works on the philosophy of moral

Moral

A moral is a message conveyed or a lesson to be learned from a story or event. The moral may be left to the hearer, reader or viewer to determine for themselves, or may be explicitly encapsulated in a maxim....
s and politics

Politics

Politics is the process by which groups of people make decisions. The term is generally applied to behaviour within civil governments, but politics has been observed in all human group interactions, including corporation, academia, and religion institutions....
, 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

Intuition (knowledge)

Intuition is the apparent ability to acquire knowledge without inference or the use of reason.?The word ?intuition? comes from the Latin word 'intueri', which is often roughly translated as meaning ?to look inside? or ?to contemplate?."...
--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

Benevolence

Benevolence is the expression of kindness and altruism.Benevolence means much good for others. As such, it is a form of love. But some theologians, such as Thomas Jay Oord, have argued that love involves both giving and receiving....
, justice

Justice

Justice is the concept of morality rightness based on ethics, rationality, law, natural law, fairness and equity."...
, truth

Truth

semantic fields for the word truth extend from honesty, good faith, and sincerity in general, to agreement with fact or reality in particular....
, purity

Purity

Purity is the absence of impurity in a substance.Purity may also refer to:* in Buddhism, Purity in Buddhism refers to a spiritual purity of character or essence....
and order

Order

Order may refer to:...
).

Among Whewell's other works—too numerous to mention—were popular writings such as the third Bridgewater Treatise Astronomy and General Physics considered with reference to Natural Theology (1833), and the essay, Of the Plurality of Worlds (1854), in which he argued against the probability

Probability

Probability, or wikt:chance, is a way of expressing knowledge or belief that an Event will occur or has occurred. In mathematics the concept has been given an exact meaning in probability theory, that is used extensively in such areas of study as mathematics, statistics, finance, gambling, science, and philosophy to draw conclusions about t...
of life on other planets

Extraterrestrial life

Extraterrestrial life is defined as life which does not originate from Earth. It is the subject of astrobiology and its existence remains hypothetical, because there is no credible evidence of extraterrestrial life which has been generally accepted by the mainstream scientific community....
, and also the Plato
Plato

Plato , was a Classical Greece Greeks philosopher, mathematician, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Platonic Academy in Ancient Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the western world....
nic Dialogues for English Readers (1850-1861), the Lectures on the History of Moral Philosophy in England (1852), the essay, Of a Liberal Education in General, with particular reference to the Leading Studies of the University of Cambridge (1845), the important edition and abridged translation of Hugo Grotius

Hugo Grotius

Hugo Grotius worked as a jurist in the Dutch Republic. With Francisco de Vitoria and Alberico Gentili he laid the foundations for international law, based on natural law....
, De jure belli ac pacis
De jure belli ac pacis

File:381px-Grotius de jure 1631.jpgDe jure belli ac pacis is a 1625 book in Latin, written by Hugo Grotius and published in Paris, on the legal status of war....
(1853), and the edition of the Mathematical Works of Isaac Barrow

Isaac Barrow

Isaac Barrow was an Kingdom of England scholar and mathematician who is generally given credit for his early role in the development of calculus; in particular, for the discovery of the fundamental theorem of calculus....
(1860).

Whewell was one of the Cambridge don

University don

A don is a Fellow#General academic use or tutor of a college or university, especially traditional collegiate universities such as University of Oxford and University of Cambridge in England....
s whom Charles Darwin

Charles Darwin

Charles Robert Darwin Royal Society was an English people natural history who realised and presented compelling evidence that all species of life have evolution over time from common descent, through the process he called natural selection....
met during his education there

Charles Darwin's education

Charles Darwin's education gave him a foundation in the history of creationism prevalent throughout the West at the time, as well as knowledge of medicine and theology....
, and after the Beagle voyage

Second voyage of HMS Beagle

The second voyage of HMS Beagle from 27 December 1831 to 2 October 1836 was the second survey expedition of HMS Beagle, under captain Robert FitzRoy who had taken over command of the ship on its first voyage after her previous captain committed suicide....
when Darwin was at the very start of The Origin of Species
The Origin of Species

Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species is a seminal work in scientific literature and a landmark work in evolutionary biology. The book's full title is On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life....
Darwin placed a citation from Whewell's Bridgewater Treatise showing his ideas to be founded on a natural theology

Natural theology

Natural theology is a branch of theology based on reason and ordinary experience. Thus it is distinguished from revealed theology which is based on scripture and religious experiences of various kinds; and also from transcendental theology, theology from a priori reasoning ....
of a creator establishing laws:

"But with regard to the material world, we can at least go so far as this-we can perceive that events are brought about not by insulated interpositions of Divine power, exerted in each particular case, but by the establishment of general laws."

Checklist of works by Whewell

(1831) Review of J. Herschel's Preliminary discourse on the study of Natural Philosophy (1830), Quarterly Review 90: 374-407.

(1833) Astronomy and general physics considered with reference to Natural Theology (Bridgewater Treatise). Cambridge.

(1840) The Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences, founded upon their history. 2 vols, London. 2nd ed 1847.

(1845) The Elements of Morality, including polity. 2 vols, London.

(1846) Lectures on systematic Morality. London.

(1849) Of Induction, with especial reference to Mr. J. Stuart Mill's System of Logic. London.

(1850) Mathematical exposition of some doctrines of political economy: second memoir. Transactions of the Cambridge Philosophical Society 9:128-49.

(1852) Lectures on the history of Moral Philosophy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

(1853) Of the Plurality of Worlds. London.

(1857) Spedding's complete edition of the works of Bacon. Edinburgh Review 106:287-322.

(1857) History of the Inductive Sciences, from the earliest to the present time. 2 vols, New York.

(1858a) The history of scientific ideas. 2 vols, London.

(1858b) Novum Organon renovatum, London.

(1860a) On the philosophy of discovery: chapters historical and critical. London.

(1861) Plato's Republic (translation). Cambridge.

(1862) Six Lectures on Political Economy, Cambridge.

(1866) Comte and Positivism. Macmillan's Magazine 13:353-62.

Honors and recognitions

The crater Whewell
Whewell (crater)

Whewell is a Moon impact crater that lies on a stretch of lava-resurfaced terrain to the west of Mare Tranquillitatis. It is located to the east of the disintegrated crater Tempel and north-northwest of D'Arrest ....
on the Moon
Moon

The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite and the List of natural satellites by diameter satellite in the Solar System. The average centre-to-centre distance from the Earth to the Moon is km, about thirty times the diameter of the Earth....
The Gothic
Gothic architecture

Gothic architecture is a style of architecture which flourished during the high and late Middle Ages. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture....
buildings known as Whewell's Court in Trinity College, Cambridge
Trinity College, Cambridge

Trinity College is one of the 31 Colleges of the University of Cambridge of the University of Cambridge. Trinity has more members than any other college in Cambridge or University of Oxford, with around 700 undergraduates, 430 graduate students, and over 160 Fellows; however, counting only the student body it has somewhat fewer than Homert...
The mineral whewellite
Whewellite

Whewellite is a mineral, hydrated calcium oxalate, formula calciumcarbon2oxygen4·water. Because of its organic content it is thought to have an indirect biological origin and this is supported by it being found in coal and sedimentary Nodule ....

External links

by Laura J. Snyder, from
from - papers on mathematical economics as well as a set of introductory lectures
from
at Trinity College, Cambridge
Trinity College, Cambridge

Trinity College is one of the 31 Colleges of the University of Cambridge of the University of Cambridge. Trinity has more members than any other college in Cambridge or University of Oxford, with around 700 undergraduates, 430 graduate students, and over 160 Fellows; however, counting only the student body it has somewhat fewer than Homert...

William Whewell

Life and career

Scientific generalist

Multiple disciplines

Tracing the history and development of science

Whewell's three steps of induction

Opponent of English empiricism

Whewell's neologisms

Work in college administration

Whewell's interests in architecture

Whewell's works in philosophy and morals

Checklist of works by Whewell

Honors and recognitions

See also

Further reading

External links