William Whewell (1794–1866)

By Bethob6

  • Philosophical Breakfasts

    Whewell discussed induction and the scientific method with three classmates, Charles Babbage, John Herschel, and Richard Jones while at Cambridge. They called their meetings "philosophical breakfasts". The following link is to a youtube video that discusses the breakfasts. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6tiKK5LOlU.

  • Publication of History of the Inductive Science, from the Earliest to the Present Time (1837)

    William Whewell wrote on a wide variety of subjects. There are two multi-volume books in particular that were significant in that they aided in defining science. The first was called the History of the Inductive Science. By induction, Whewell meant that rather than deriving law structure and meaning from data, they would be fed into the data. His thought was that when unconnected data enters a person’s mind, it will find ways in which to “connect the dots” to arrive at new knowledge.

  • Induction Confirmation Testing - Prediction and Consilience

    The tests that Whewell believed that the tests that ideas must pass are prediction, consilience, and coherence. Prediction is what would be expected; that the rule would cover all possible instances in the past, present and future. Consilience would involve the ability of the hypothesis to also predict cases that were different from the original hypothesis.

  • Confirmation Testing - Coherence

    To explain coherence, Whewell stated, “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….In false theories, the contrary is the case”

  • Publication of Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences

    The second multi-volume book, Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences, delves further into Induction. Whewell also believed in what he called the “fundamental antithesis of knowledge”. Unlike Immanuel Kant, Whewell believed that knowledge has both objective and subjective dimensions. He believed that it came from both facts and feelings. Whewell also believed that ideas arrived at by induction have to pass three different tests in order to be confirmed as empirical truth.

  • Citations of Major Works

    Whewell, William. History of the Inductive Sciences: From the Earliest to the Present Time. London: J.W. Parker, 1837. Print.
    Whewell, William. The Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences, Founded upon Their History. London: n.p., 1840. Print.

  • References

    Reidy, Michael S., and Malcolm R. Forster. Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers. University of Wisconsin, n.d. Web. 23 Apr. 2017. http://philosophy.wisc.edu/forster/Whewell.htm.
    Snyder, Laura J. "William Whewell." Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Stanford University, 23 Dec. 2000. Web. 23 Apr. 2017. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/whewell/.