Lectures and Essays

Essays by mathematician William Clifford, bridging the pure and social sciences in the wake of Darwinism, published posthumously in 1879.

William Kingdon Clifford (Author), Leslie Stephen (Edited by), Frederick Pollock (Edited by)

9781108040952, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 8 December 2011

334 pages, 1 b/w illus.
21.6 x 14 x 1.9 cm, 0.43 kg

A fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, and of the Royal Society, William Clifford (1845–79) made his reputation in applied mathematics, but his interests ranged far more widely, encompassing ethics, evolution, metaphysics and philosophy of mind. This posthumously collected two-volume work, first published in 1879, bears witness to the dexterity and eclecticism of this Victorian thinker, whose commitment to the most abstract principles of mathematics and the most concrete details of human experience resulted in vivid and often unexpected arguments. Volume 2 shows Clifford's thorough engagement with scientific thought as a method for illuminating ethical and moral questions. Essays such as 'Body and Mind', 'On the Scientific Basis of Morals' and 'The Ethics of Belief' all variously demonstrate Clifford's core tenet: that beliefs - whether they guide human action or scientific enquiry - 'can never suffer from investigation'.

Lectures and Essays continued: 8. Instruments used in measurement
9. Body and mind
10. On the nature of things-in-themselves
11. On the types of compound statement involving four classes
12. On the scientific basis of morals
13. Right and wrong: the scientific ground of their distinction
14. The ethics of belief
15. The ethics of religion
16. The influence upon morality of a decline in religious belief
Cosmic emotion
Virchow on the teaching of science.

Subject Areas: Western philosophy: c 1600 to c 1900 [HPCD]