Introduction

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-6
Author(s):  
W. J. Mander
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Complex Domain ◽  
Victorian Era ◽  
History Of ◽  
Opening Up ◽  
First Philosophy

The following work presents a history of nineteenth-century metaphysics in Britain, providing close textual readings of the key contributions to First Philosophy made by the dozen or so chief thinkers of the Victorian era. To the uninitiated, Victorian philosophy in general, and Victorian metaphysics even more so, can seem an impenetrably obscure and complex domain, a massive dusty labyrinth of worn out and overblown verbiage. The secret to successfully opening up this forbidding field, however, is to find an appropriate path through it, and in this book I argue that such a key is to be found in William Hamilton’s concept of ...

The Unknowable

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. J. Mander
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Great Part ◽  
Victorian Britain ◽  
History Of ◽  
First Philosophy

This book presents a history of nineteenth century metaphysics in Britain, providing close textual readings of the key contributions to First Philosophy made by the key philosophers of the period (such as Hamilton, Mansel, Spencer, Mill, and Bradley) as well as some lesser known figures (such as Bain, Clifford, Shadworth Hodgson, Ferrier, and John Grote). The story focuses on the elaboration of, and differing reactions to, the concept of the unknowable or unconditioned, first developed by Sir William Hamilton in the 1829. The idea of an ultimate but unknowable way that things really are in themselves may be seen as supplying a narrative arc that runs right through the metaphysical systems of the period in question as, relative to this concept, these thought schemes may be divided into three broad groups which were roughly consecutive in their emergence but also overlapping as they continued to develop. In the first instance there were the doctrines of the agnostics who further progressed Hamilton’s basic idea that fundamental reality lies for the great part beyond our cognitive reach, but these philosophies were followed, immediately by those of the empiricists and, in the last third of the century by those of the idealists, both of whom—albeit in profoundly different ways—reacted against the epistemic pessimism of the agnostics. By presenting, interpreting, criticizing and connecting together their various contrasting ideas this book explains how these three traditions developed and interacted with one another to comprise the history of metaphysics in Victorian Britain.

Return to the Wilberforce–Huxley Debate

1988 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 161-179 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Vernon Jensen
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Young Scientist ◽  
Science And Religion ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
Rhetorical History ◽  
Victorian Era ◽  
Thomas Henry Huxley ◽  
History Of ◽  
Historic City ◽  
Insight Into

One hundred and twenty-eight years ago in the historic city of Oxford a relatively brief impromptu verbal exchange at a scientific convention occurred. It is still vividly remembered in and out of academia. This so-called ‘debate’ between the Bishop of Oxford, Samuel Wilberforce, and the young scientist, Thomas Henry Huxley, a simple and concrete episode, has continued to symbolize dramatically the complex and abstract phenomenon of the conflict between science and religion in the late nineteenth century. while that symbol may be somewhat inaccurate, or its relevance may have shifted from a century ago, it still is a powerful image, one which continues to be an important part of the religious, scientific and rhetorical history of the late Victorian era. Moore recently wrote: ‘No battle of the nineteenth century, save Waterloo, is better known.’ It is, as Altholz put it, ‘one of those historical events the substance and significance of which are clear, but whose specifics are decidedly fuzzy around the edges.’ It is the purpose of this paper to present a full and balanced view of the specific ingredients, permitting a better insight into the event's symbolism and significance.

Afterword

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angela McCarthy ◽  
T.M. Devine
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Economic Development ◽  
Historical Understanding ◽  
Victorian Era ◽  
History Of ◽  
Scottish Diaspora

We summarise this study’s contribution to several levels of historical understanding: the British commercial empire in Asia; the story of tea as a global commodity; Sri Lanka’s economic development in the nineteenth century; the experience of British Asian planters in the Victorian era; the history of the Scottish diaspora; and last, but by no means least, in providing the first biography of James Taylor, the pioneer of Ceylon tea. In addition, we summarise Taylor’s personality and character.

Scandal in Somers town: conspiracism and Catholic schools in early Victorian England

2021 ◽  
Vol 35 (4) ◽  
pp. 415-439
Author(s):  
Aidan Cottrell-Boyce
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Catholic Schools ◽  
Urban Population ◽  
Conspiracy Theory ◽  
Small School ◽  
Charitable Organizations ◽  
Victorian England ◽  
Victorian Era ◽  
The Poor ◽  
History Of

The middle years of the nineteenth century are notable in the history of Catholicism in England for the development of the ‘papal aggression’ crisis. Catholic emancipation had been met with suspicion by Protestant groups and this suspicion grew into violent antipathy with the publication by Nicholas Wiseman of ‘Ex Porta Flaminia.’ At the same time that this crisis was emerging, Catholic charitable organizations were also attempting to garner support from the state for the building of Catholic schools. With a boom in the poor, urban population, fuelled by the arrival of Irish refugees, this assistance was urgently required. In the midst of this a small school in the heart of London became the focus of a cause célèbre. The belief that this school had been funded by lucre, defrauded from dying and vulnerable members of the Somers Town community by simonist priests, provided the source of a widespread conspiracy theory. The result of this conspiracy theory was a lawsuit, brought in 1851 by the relatives of a deceased benefactor of the school, against the newly enthroned Cardinal Wiseman. Metairie vs. Wiseman became one of the most celebrated and cited cases of the early Victorian era.

THE CURIOUS CAREER OF LIBERALISM IN INDIA

2011 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 687-696 ◽  
Author(s):  
PARTHA CHATTERJEE
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Liberal State ◽  
State Institutions ◽  
Beneficial Effects ◽  
British Rule ◽  
The People ◽  
History Of ◽  
To Come ◽  
Opening Up ◽  
Democratic Country

There is a long-standing myth that the history of modern India was foretold at the beginning of the nineteenth century by British liberals who predicted that the enlightened despotic rule of India's new conquerors would, by its beneficial effects, improve the native character and institutions sufficiently to prepare the people of that country one day to govern themselves. Lord William Bentinck, a disciple of Jeremy Bentham, while presenting as governor-general his case for the opening up of India to European settlers, speculated on the possibility of “a vast change to have occurred in the frame of society . . . which would imply that the time had arrived when it would be wise for England to leave India to govern itself”, but added that such change “can scarcely be looked for in centuries to come”. The doctrinal basis within liberal theory for justifying a democratic country like Britain exercising despotic power in colonies such as Ireland and India was securely laid out by mid-century liberals such as John Stuart Mill. The project of “improvement” was revived at the end of the nineteenth century by Gladstonian liberals who inducted elite Indians into new representative institutions based on a very narrow franchise in preparation for some form of self-government. When power was ultimately transferred to the rulers of a partitioned subcontinent in 1947, the history of liberal progress in India was complete. The storyline was laid out, for instance, in Thompson and Garratt's Rise and Fulfilment of British Rule in India or in Percival Spear's revised edition of the hugely successful textbook by Vincent Smith. Even nationalist Indian scholars adopted at least a part of this story, nowhere more so than in the histories of constitutional law which traced the foundations of the postcolonial Indian republic to the progressive expansion of liberal state institutions under British rule.

THE ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION OF LATIN: ITS RISE AND FALL

2012 ◽  
Vol 58 ◽  
pp. 23-57
Author(s):  
Andrew Collins
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
English Language ◽  
Short Review ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
Victorian Era ◽  
Modern Language ◽  
English System ◽  
History Of ◽  
Late Nineteenth

Before the modern Restored pronunciation of Latin, the English language had an Anglicised system for pronouncing Latin, whose legacy is still quite clear in the modern language. This paper examines the English system of pronouncing Latin, and the collapse of that system in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This includes a short review of the history of the pronunciation of Latin in Britain from the Middle Ages until the nineteenth century; a review of the rules and historical development of the English system, in the form it reached by the mid-nineteenth century; the reform of that system in the late Victorian era; and its erosion from the late nineteenth century and replacement with the Reformed pronunciation of Latin.

Private club culture in London and New York during the Victorian era

2021 ◽  
Vol 00 (00) ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
Clayton Barrows ◽  
David Bachrach
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
New York ◽  
Historical Documents ◽  
Press Coverage ◽  
Victorian Era ◽  
Participation Of Women ◽  
The Press ◽  
Married Men ◽  
History Of

The private club literature is disparate and rarely draws comparisons between or among club cultures. In this article, club culture in New York and London are compared. Specifically, the history of private clubs in London and New York is explored, focusing on the latter part of the nineteenth century. Historical documents are reviewed in an attempt to establish the club culture in the respective cities, how clubs were viewed within their communities, and similarities that existed between ‘Club Land’ in London and similar club clusters in New York. While the press coverage in the respective cities seems to have been equally admiring of clubs and ‘clubmen’, some differences are identified between the respective club cultures and club identities, particularly with respect to the inclusivity of the clubs, and the expectations for the participation of women and married men in club life.

Christmas Books and Stories

2018 ◽  
pp. 190-206
Author(s):  
Ruth Glancy
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Academic Interest ◽  
Unique Position ◽  
History Of ◽  
Iconic Status ◽  
Opening Up

This chapter seeks to eliminate some of the misunderstandings surrounding Charles Dickens’s writings for Christmas, the works he named ‘Christmas Books’ (five novellas written between 1843 and 1848) and ‘Christmas Stories’ (short pieces that were originally contained in ‘Christmas numbers’ written with other contributors for his journals Household Words and All the Year Round between 1850 and 1867). By far the best known of the Christmas writings is A Christmas Carol, and its iconic status among Dickens’s works has led to the undervaluing of his other writings for the season. The Christmas numbers are particularly important for their unique position as collaborative journalism in the mid-nineteenth century. This chapter surveys the history of the Christmas books and stories from their inception to current criticism, identifies the central issues of academic interest to date, and points to the areas that are opening up as a result of the greater accessibility of the Christmas numbers.

A history of some fruit models in wax and other materials: scientific teaching aids and courtly table decorations

2003 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 299-316 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hans-JüRgen Lechtreck
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Fruit Trees ◽  
Visual Aids ◽  
Early Nineteenth Century ◽  
Teaching Aids ◽  
Scientific Teaching ◽  
Glass Marble ◽  
History Of ◽  
By Products ◽  
Wax Models

Two early nineteenth century texts treating the production and use of wax models of fruit reveal the history of these objects in the context of courtly decoration. Both sources emphasise the models' decorative qualities and their suitability for display, properties which were not simply by-products of the realism that the use of wax allowed. Thus, such models were not regarded merely as visual aids for educational purposes. The artists who created them sought to entice collectors of art and natural history objects, as well as teachers and scientists. Wax models of fruits are known to have been collected and displayed as early as the seventeenth century, although only one such collection is extant. Before the early nineteenth century models of fruits made from wax or other materials (glass, marble, faience) were considered worthy of display because contemporaries attached great importance to mastery of the cultivation and grafting of fruit trees. This skill could only be demonstrated by actually showing the fruits themselves. Therefore, wax models made before the early nineteenth century may also be regarded as attempts to preserve natural products beyond the point of decay.

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