1. Quotes
  2. Authors
  3. William Whewell

William Whewell Quotes

Rev Dr William Whewell DD HFRSE was an English polymath, scientist, Anglican priest, philosopher, theologian, and historian of science. He was Master of Trinity College, Cambridge. In his time as a student there, he achieved distinction in both poetry and mathematics.

What is most often remarked about Whewell is the breadth of his endeavours. In a time of increasing specialisation, Whewell appears as a vestige of an earlier era when natural philosophers dabbled in a bit of everything. He researched ocean tides , published work in the disciplines of mechanics, physics, geology, astronomy, and economics, while also finding the time to compose poetry, author a Bridgewater Treatise, translate the works of Goethe, and write sermons and theological tracts. In mathematics, Whewell introduced what is now called the Whewell equation, an equation defining the shape of a curve without reference to an arbitrarily chosen coordinate system.

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 for their discoveries. Whewell contributed the terms scientist, physicist, linguistics, consilience, catastrophism, uniformitarianism, and astigmatism amongst others; Whewell suggested the terms electrode, ion, dielectric, anode, and cathode to Michael Faraday.Whewell died in Cambridge in 1866 as a result of a fall from his horse.



Wikipedia  

✵ 24. May 1794 – 6. March 1866
William Whewell photo
William Whewell: 12 quotes0 likes

Famous William Whewell Quotes

“Every failure is a step to success. Every detection of what is false directs us towards what is true: every trial exhausts some tempting form of error. Not only so; but scarcely any attempt is entirely a failure; scarcely any theory, the result of steady thought, is altogether false; no tempting form of Error is without some latent charm derived from Truth.”

William Whewell

Lectures on the History of Moral Philosophy in England, Lecture 7. (1852).

“By speaking of space as an Idea, I intend to imply…that the apprehension of objects as existing in space, and of the relations of position, &c., prevailing among them, is not a consequence of experience, but a result of a peculiar constitution and activity of the mind, which is independent of all experience in its origin, though constantly combined with experience in its exercise.”

William Whewell

Part 1, Book 2, ch. 2, art. 1.
Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences (1840)

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

William Whewell

Aphorism 39.
Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences (1840)

“The catastrophist constructs theories, the uniformitarian demolishes them.”

William Whewell

Aphorism 36.
Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences (1840)

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

William Whewell

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

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

William Whewell

Aphorism 25.
Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences (1840)

William Whewell Quotes

“Our assent to the hypothesis implies that it is held to be true of all particular instances. That these cases belong to past or to future times, that they have or have not already occurred, makes no difference in the applicability of the rule to them. Because the rule prevails, it includes all cases.”

William Whewell

Part 2, Book 11, ch. 5, sect. 3, art. 10.
Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences (1840)

“We unfold out of the Idea of Space the propositions of geometry, which are plainly truths of the most rigorous necessity and universality. But if the idea of space were merely collected from observation of the external world, it could never enable or entitle us to assert such propositions: it could never authorize us to say that not merely some lines, but all lines, not only have, but must have, those properties which geometry teaches. Geometry in every proposition speaks a language which experience never dares to utter; and indeed of which she but half comprehends the meaning.”

William Whewell

Part 1, Book 1, ch. 7, art. 1.
Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences (1840)

“We cannot observe external things without some degree of Thought; nor can we reflect upon our Thoughts, without being influenced in the course of our reflection by the Things which we have observed.”

William Whewell

The Elements of Morality, Book 1, ch. 1. (1845).

“According to the technical language of old writers, a thing and its qualities are described as subject and attributes; and thus a man’s faculties and acts are attributes of which he is the subject. The mind is the subject in which ideas inhere. Moreover, the man’s faculties and acts are employed upon external objects; and from objects all his sensations arise. Hence the part of a man’s knowledge which belongs to his own mind, is subjective: that which flows in upon him from the world external to him, is objective.”

William Whewell

Part 1, Book 1, ch. 2, sect. 7.
Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences (1840)

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

William Whewell

Aphorism 17.
Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences (1840)

“The system becomes more coherent as it is further extended. The elements which we require for explaining a new class of facts are already contained in our system. Different members of the theory run together, and we have thus a constant convergence to unity. In false theories, the contrary is the case.”

William Whewell

Part 2, Book 11, ch. 5, sect. 3, art. 12.
Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences (1840)

Similar authors

Thomas Carlyle photo
Thomas Carlyle481
Scottish philosopher, satirical writer, essayist, historian… None
Auguste Comte photo
Auguste Comte23
French philosopher None
John Stuart Mill photo
John Stuart Mill179
British philosopher and political economist None
Samuel Taylor Coleridge photo
Samuel Taylor Coleridge220
English poet, literary critic and philosopher None
Arthur Schopenhauer photo
Arthur Schopenhauer261
German philosopher None
Theodor Mommsen photo
Theodor Mommsen65
German classical scholar, historian, jurist, journalist, po… None
Henri-Frédéric Amiel photo
Henri-Frédéric Amiel50
Swiss philosopher and poet None
Percy Bysshe Shelley photo
Percy Bysshe Shelley246
English Romantic poet None
Ludwig Feuerbach photo
Ludwig Feuerbach36
German philosopher and anthropologist None
William James photo
William James246
American philosopher, psychologist, and pragmatist None