Hamilton (SIR WILLIAM a distinguished)

Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)

SIR WILLIAM, a distinguished Scotch metaphysician; born in Glasgow, Scotland, March 8, 1788. His father and grandfather held in succession the chairs of anatomy and botany in Glasgow University. Having studied with distinction at Glasgow, in 1809, he entered Baliol College, Oxford, where he gained first-class honors. In 1813 he was admitted to the Scottish bar, but never acquired a practice in his pro profession, his taste lying much more toward the study of philosophy. In 1820 he became a candidate for the chair of moral philosophy in Edinburgh, but, being defeated by Prof. John Wilson, he took the chair of universal history. In 1829 the publication in the "Edinburgh Review" of his celebrated critique of Cousin's system of philosophy gave him at once a first place among the philosophical writers of the time. This was followed in 1830 by his criticism of Brown, and in 1831 by his article on the authorship of "Letters of Obscure Men." In 1836 he was appointed to the chair of logic and metaphysics in Edinburgh University. In 1846 he published an annotated edition of the works of Thomas Reid, and in 1854 the first volume of a similar edition of the works of Dugald Stewart. His lectures on logic and metaphysics were collected and edited by Dean Mansel and Professor Veitch. Hamilton's most important contributions to philosophy are connected with his doctrine of the Quantification of the Predicate in his system of logic; his theory of the "relativity of knowledge," in the Kantian sense, held along with an apparently incompatible doctrine of immediate perception of the non-ego; and his definition of the infinite or unconditioned as a mere negation of thought. He died in Edinburgh, Scotland, May 6, 1856.