Beschreibung
London, 1837 + London, 1840. Five volumes 8vo. Bound in five contemporary, uniform brown half calf bindings (The Philosophy.-volumes slightly darker brown) with raised bands and gilt spines. Marbled edges. A bit of light edge-wear, but overall very fine and fresh. Some marginal pencil markings to first part of vol. 1 of "The Philosophy.", otherwise also internally very nice and clean. All five volumes with the same engraved amorial bookplate to inside of front boards. A very nice, uniform set of the five volumes that make up the two works. XXXVI, 437, (3)" XI, (1), VI pp., pp. (7)-534, (2) XII, 624 pp. + CXX, 523, (1)" IV, 586 pp. + folded plate. Uncommon first editions of both these splendid works (the "Philosophy" is particularly scarce), Whewell's two main works, both seminal in the history of science and philosophy of science. The first of the two works, the "History" is considered "one of the important surveys of science from the Greeks to the nineteenth century" (DSB), and it is in the second of them, "The Philosophy." - "one of the masterpieces of Victorian philosophy of science" (DSB) - that he coins the word "scientist", to describe a cultivator of science in general. ?William Whewell (1794?1866) was one of the most important and influential figures in nineteenth-century Britain. Whewell, a polymath, wrote extensively on numerous subjects, including mechanics, mineralogy, geology, astronomy, political economy, theology, educational reform, international law, and architecture, as well as the works that remain the most well-known today in philosophy of science, history of science, and moral philosophy. He was one of the founding members and a president of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, a fellow of the Royal Society, president of the Geological Society, and longtime Master of Trinity College, Cambridge. In his own time his influence was acknowledged by the major scientists of the day, such as John Herschel, Charles Darwin, Charles Lyell and Michael Faraday, who frequently turned to Whewell for philosophical and scientific advice, and, interestingly, for terminological assistance. Whewell invented the terms ?anode,? ?cathode,? and ?ion? for Faraday. In response to a challenge by the poet S.T. Coleridge in 1833, Whewell invented the English word ?scientist"? before this time the only terms in use in that language were ?natural philosopher? and ?man of science?.? (SEP). "First published in 1840, this two-volume treatise by Cambridge polymath William Whewell (1794-1886) remains significant in the philosophy of science. The work was intended as the 'moral' to his three-volume History of the Inductive Sciences (1837). Building on philosophical foundations laid by Immanuel Kant and Francis Bacon, Whewell opens with the aphorism 'Man is the Interpreter of Nature, Science the right interpretation'. Volume 1 contains the majority of Whewell's section on 'ideas', in which he investigates the philosophy underlying a range of different disciplines, including pure, classificatory and mechanical sciences. Whewell's work upholds throughout his belief that the mind was active and not merely a passive receiver of knowledge from the world. A key text in Victorian epistemological debates, notably challenged by John Stuart Mill and his System of Logic, Whewell's treatise merits continued study and discussion in the present day." (Cambridge University Press). "From the late 1830's until his death, Whewell worked mainly in the history and philosophy of science. His three-volume "History of the Inductive Sciences" appeared in 1837" in 1838 he was appointed professor of moral philosophy" and the first edition of his two-volume "The Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences, Founded Upon Their History" was published in 1840. Both the "History" and the "Philosophy" were ambitious works, and together they constitute Whewell's major scholarly achievement. The "History" had no rivals in its day and remains, despite unevenness, one.
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