Chauncey Wright
Chauncey Wright (
September 10,
1830 -
September 12,
1875),
American philosopher and
mathematician, was born at
Northampton, Massachusetts.In 1852 he graduated at
Harvard, and became computer to the
American Ephemeris and Nautical Almanac. He made his name by contributions on mathematical and physical subjects in the
Mathematical Monthly. He soon, however, turned his attention to metaphysics and psychology, and for the
North American Review and later for the
Nation he wrote philosophical essays on the lines of
Mill,
Darwin and
Spencer.In 1870-71 he lectured on
psychology at Harvard. Although, in general, he adhered to the
evolution theory, he was a free-lance in thought. Among his essays may be mentioned
The Evolution of Self-Consciousness and two articles published in 1871 on the
Genesis of Species. Of these, the former endeavours to explain the most elaborate psychical activities of men as developments of elementary forms of conscious processes in the animal kingdom as a whole; the latter is a defence of the theory of natural selection against the attacks of
St George Mivart, and appeared in an English edition on the suggestion of Darwin. From 1863 to 1870 he was secretary and recorder to the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and in the last year of his life he lectured on mathematical physics at Harvard.His essays were collected and published by
CE Norton in 1877, and his
Letters were edited and privately printed at
Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1878 by
James Bradley Thayer.
Publications
External links
References
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