Sir William Hamilton, 9th Baronet
Sir William Hamilton ( born March 8, 1788 in Glasgow, † May 6, 1856 in Edinburgh) was a Scottish philosopher and the ninth Baron of Preston.
Life
His father, Dr. William Hamilton, a distinguished teacher of anatomy, died in 1790 at the age of 36 years. The boy grew up in Scotland ( with the exception of two years in London ) and went in 1807 to Balliol College, Oxford. His educational goal was originally Medicine. After the financial statements as BA and MA (1814 ), however, he turned to different areas of knowledge and thus expanded his horizon. He gradually developed his philosophical system. Two visits in Germany led him over to the local philosophy. In 1816 he was able to prove his descent from the Hamilton family of Preston, and so was the ninth Baron of Preston. From this point on, he no longer related his previous interim name Stirling and called instead of William Stirling Hamilton now Sir William Hamilton of Preston and Fing Alton. In 1821 he was in Edinburgh professor of history; one year after the death of the revered Mother (1827 ) he married his cousin, Janet Marshall.
In 1829 he published his treatise on the " Philosophy of the Unconditioned " - a critique of Auguste Comte and the first in a series of articles that should appear in the Edinburgh Review. In 1836 he was elected to Edinburgh to the chair of logic and metaphysics. In the following two decades, until his death, he had a substantial impact the younger Scottish philosopher. In 1836, he also began with the publication of the writings of Thomas Reid (published in 1846). In 1844 he suffered a stroke. For a long time he had " a new analysis of logical forms " working on an essay on whose results ultimately in his Lectures on Logic found entrance. Even the preparation of a biography of Martin Luther, he turned quite some time, but they did not thrive beyond manuscript form. 1852/53 published his contributions to the Edinburgh Review in collected form under the title Discussions in Philosophy, Literature and Education. 1854/55 he got a new edition of the works of Dugald Stewart.
Soon after the end of the winter semester 1855/56, in which he had read, he fell ill and died in Edinburgh.
Work
Hamilton was less by his successors in contemporary philosophy praised for an innovative approach as for its distinct ability to stimulate his students to think critically. He brought the German philosophy - especially those of Immanuel Kant - to the British Isles, where they had hitherto led a niche existence. He also studied the commentaries on Aristotle and scholastic philosophy in depth - an innovation at a time when they were still sneered at for being dull - medieval. He was extraordinarily well-read and had very wide knowledge. This was substantiated his library, which finally entered the Glasgow University Library.
He took the view that philosophy is not eligible to win absolute knowledge, rather it belongs to the area of academic mental exercises. As he looked at logic as a purely formal science, he considered it extremely unscientific, the formal and treat the material conditions of our knowledge together.
Recent work
Posthumously published Lectures on Metaphysics and Logic, and Additional Notes to Reid 's Works, from Sir W. Hamilton's Manuscripts.
Quote
" Arrange in the spirit of your mind from the beginning, before you think by the end of the words. " Sir William Hamilton
Swell
- Biography in the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition
- Entry in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy ( English )