Online Encyclopedia

Search over 40,000 articles from the original, classic Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition.

SIDGWICK, HENRY (1838-1900)

Online Encyclopedia
Originally appearing in Volume V25, Page 40 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
» Make a correction to this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Spread the word: del.icio.us del.icio.us it!

See also:

SIDGWICK, See also:HENRY (1838-1900) , See also:English philosopher, was See also:born at See also:Skipton in See also:Yorkshire, where his See also:father, the Rev. W. Sidgwick (d. 1841), was headmaster of the See also:grammar-school, on the 31st of May 1838. He was educated at See also:Rugby (where his See also:cousin, subsequently his See also:brother-in-See also:law, E. W. See also:Benson—afterwards See also:archbishop—was a See also:master), and at Trinity, See also:Cambridge, where his career was a brilliant one. In 1859 he was See also:senior classic, 33rd wrangler, See also:chancellor's medallist and See also:Craven See also:scholar. In the same See also:year he was elected to a fellowship at Trinity, and soon afterwards appointed to a classical lectureship there. This See also:post he held for ten years, but in 1869 exchanged his lectureship for one in moral See also:philosophy, a subject to which he had been turning his See also:attention more and more. In the same year, finding that he could no longer declare himself a member of the See also:Church of See also:England, he resigned his fellowship. He retained his lectureship, and in 1881 was elected an honorary See also:fellow.

In 1874 he published his Method of See also:

Ethics (6th ed. 1901, containing emendations written just before his See also:death), which first won him a reputation outside his university. In 1875 he was appointed praelector on moral and See also:political philosophy at Trinity, in 1883 he was elected See also:Knight-See also:bridge See also:professor of moral philosophy, and in 1885, the religious test having been removed, his See also:college once more elected him to a fellowship on the See also:foundation. Besides his lecturing and See also:literary labours, Sidgwick took an active See also:part in the business of the university, and in many forms of social and philanthropic See also:work. He was a member of the See also:General See also:Board of Studies from its foundation in 1882 till 1899; he was also a member of the See also:Council of the See also:Senate of the See also:Indian See also:Civil Service Board and the See also:Local See also:Examinations and Lectures See also:Syndicate, and chairman of the See also:Special Board for Moral See also:Science. He was one of the founders and first See also:president of the Society for Psychical See also:Research, and was a member of the Metaphysical Society. None of his work is more closely identified with his name than the part he took in promoting the higher See also:education of See also:women. He helped to start the higher local examinations for women, and the lectures held at Cambridge in preparation for these. It was at his See also:suggestion and with his help that See also:Miss See also:Clough opened a See also:house of See also:residence for students; and when this had See also:developed into Newnham College, and in 188o the See also:North See also:Hall was added, Mr Sidgwick, who had in 1876 married Eleanor Mildred See also:Balfour (See also:sister of A. J. Balfour), went with his wife to live there for two years. After Miss Clough's death in 1892 Mrs Sidgwick became See also:principal of the college, and she and her See also:husband resided there for the See also:rest of his See also:life.

During this whole See also:

period Sidgwick took the deepest See also:interest in the welfare of the college. In politics he was a Liberal, andbecame a Liberal Unionist in 1886. See also:Early in 1900 he was forced by See also:ill-See also:health to resign his professorship, and he died on the 28th of See also:August of the same year. Though in many ways an excellent teacher he was primarily a student, and treated his pupils as fellow-learners. He was deeply interested in psychical phenomena, but his energies were primarily devoted to the study of See also:religion and philosophy. Brought up in the Church of England, he gradually drifted from orthodox See also:Christianity, and as early as 1862 he described himself as a theist. For the rest of his life, though he regarded Christianity as " indispensable and irreplaceable—looking at it from a sociological point of view," he found himself unable to return to it as a religion. In political See also:economy he was a Utilitarian on the lines of See also:Mill and See also:Bentham; his work was the careful investigation of first principles and the investigation of ambiguities rather than constructive. In philosophy he devoted himself to ethics, and especially to the 'examination of the ultimate . intuitive principles of conduct and the problem of See also:free will. He gave up the psychological See also:hedonism of Mill, and adopted instead a position which may be described as ethical hedonism, according to which the criterion of goodness in any given See also:action is that it produces the greatest possible amount of See also:pleasure. This hedonism, however, is not confined to the self (egoistic), but involves a due regard to the pleasure of others, and is, therefore, distinguished further as universalistic. Lastly, Sidgwick returns to the principle that no See also:man should See also:act so as to destroy his own happiness, and leaves us with a somewhat unsatisfactory See also:dualism.

His See also:

chief See also:works are Principles of Political Economy (1883, 3rd ed. s9o1); See also:Scope and Method of Economic Science (1885) ; Outlines of the See also:History of Ethics (1886, 5th ed. 1902), enlarged from his See also:article ETHICS in the See also:Encyclopaedia Britannica; Elements of Politics (1891, 2nd ed. 1897), an See also:attempt to See also:supply an adequate See also:treatise on the subject starting from the old lines of Bentham and Mill. The following were published posthumously: Philosophy; its Scope and Relations (5902) ; Lectures on the Ethics of T. H. See also:Green, Mr See also:Herbert See also:Spencer and J. See also:Martineau (1902); The Development of See also:European Polity (t9o3) ; See also:Miscellaneous Essays and Addresses (1904); Lectures on the Philosophy of See also:Kant (1905). His younger brother, See also:ARTHUR SIDGWICK, had a brilliant school and university career, being second classic at Cambridge in 1863 and becoming fellow of Trinity; but he devoted himself thence-forth mainly to work as a teacher. After being for many years a master at Rugby, he became in 1882 fellow and See also:tutor of Corpus, See also:Oxford; and from 1894 to 1906 was Reader in See also:Greek in the university. He published a number of admirable classical school-books, including Greek See also:Prose (1876) and Greek See also:Verse (1882), and texts (See also:Virgil, 189o; See also:Aeschylus, 1880-1903), and was well known as a consummate classical scholar, remarkable for literary See also:taste and general culture. In the college life of Corpus he took the deepest interest and had the most stimulating See also:influence; and he also played an active part in social and political movements from an advanced Liberal point of view. A Memoir of Henry Sidgwick, written by his brother with the collaboration of his widow, was published in 1906.

SIDI-See also:

BEL-ABBES, chief See also:town of an See also:arrondissement in the See also:department of See also:Oran, See also:Algeria, 48 m. by See also:rail S. of Oran, 1552 ft above the See also:sea, on the right See also:bank of the Mekerra. Pop. (woe) of the town, 24,494 (of whom three-fourths are See also:French or Spaniards) ; of the See also:commune, 29,088; of the arrondissement, which includes 17 communes, 98,309. The town, which occupies an important strategic position in the See also:plain dominated by the escarpments of See also:Mount Tessala, has barrack See also:accommodation for 6000 troops, and is the headquarters of the ter See also:regiment etranger, one of the two regiments known as the See also:Foreign See also:Legion. It is encircled by a crenellated and bastioned See also:wall with a See also:fosse, and has four See also:gates, named after Oran, Daia, See also:Mascara and See also:Tlemcen respectively. Starting from the gates, two broad streets, shaded by See also:plane trees, See also:traverse the town See also:east to See also:west and north to See also:south, the latter dividing the civil from the military quarters. There are numerous fountains fed by the Mekerra. Sidi-bel-Abbes is also an important agricultural centre, See also:wheat, See also:tobacco and See also:alias being the chief articles of See also:trade. There are numerous vineyards and See also:olive- groves in the vicinity. The town, founded by the French, derives its name from the kubba (See also:tomb) of a See also:marabout named Sidi-bel-Abbes, near which a See also:redoubt was constructed by General Bedeau in 1843. The site of the town, formerly a swamp, has been thoroughly drained. The surrounding See also:country is healthy, fertile and populous.

End of Article: SIDGWICK, HENRY (1838-1900)

Additional information and Comments

There are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click, and select "copy." Then paste it into your website, email, or other HTML.
Site content, images, and layout Copyright © 2006 - Net Industries, worldwide.
Do not copy, download, transfer, or otherwise replicate the site content in whole or in part.

Links to articles and home page are always encouraged.

[back]
SIDEBOARD 		[next]
SIDMOUTH

Site © 2006 - Net Industries