The Popular Science Monthly, October, 1900: Vol. 57, May, 1900 to October, 1900Various
History
The Popular Science Monthly, October, 1900: Vol. 57, May, 1900 to October, 1900
Various
Science -- Periodicals; Technology -- Periodicals
was rivaled by personal qualities which made his associates and
acquaintances his friends.
* * * * *
Henry Sidgwick, late Knightbridge professor of moral philosophy at
Cambridge, died on August 28, at the age of sixty-two years. There
are usually not many events to record in the life of a university
professor, but Sidgwick had an opportunity to prove his character
when he resigned a fellowship in Trinity College because holding it
implied the acceptance of certain theological dogmas. Liberalizing
influences, however, were at work, of which he himself was an important
part, and he was later elected honorary fellow of the same college,
and in 1883 became professor of moral philosophy in the University.
Sidgwick published three large works--‘Methods of Ethics’ (1874),
‘Principles of Political Economy’ (1883) and ‘Elements of Politics’
(1891)--in addition to a great number of separate articles. All these
works, especially the ‘Ethics,’ show an intellect to a rare degree both
subtle and scientific. There was a distinction and a personal quality
in what he wrote that made each book or essay a work of art, as well
as a contribution to knowledge. Those who knew Professor Sidgwick--and
the writer of the present note regards it as one of the fortunate
circumstances of his life that he was for several years a student
under him--realize that the qualities of the man were even more rare
than those of the author. His hesitating utterance, always ending in
exactly the right word, but represented the caution and correctness of
his thought. Subtlety, sincerity, kindliness and humor were as happily
combined in his daily conversation as in his writings. It is said that
he was never ‘entrapped into answering a question by yes or no,’ but
his deeds and his influence were positive without qualification or
limitation.
* * * * *
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, who died on almost the same day as
Sidgwick, was also a writer on ethics and once a university professor,
but the life and writings of the two men present a strange contrast.
Where Sidgwick’s touch was light as an angel’s, Nietzsche trampled like
a bull; the one was the embodiment of reason, caution, consideration
and kindliness, the other represented paradox, recklessness, violence
and brute force. Still Nietzsche deserves mention here, as his ethical
views, based on the Darwinian theory of the survival of the fit, are
not unlikely to be urged hereafter by saner men, and to become an
integral part of ethics when ethics becomes a science. As a matter
of fact, after resigning his professorship at Zurich, and even while
writing his remarkable books, Nietzsche suffered from brain disease,
and during the past eleven years his reason was completely lost.
INDEX.
NAMES OF CONTRIBUTORS ARE PRINTED IN SMALL CAPITALS.
Academies, International Association of, 666.
Academy, National, Retiring President of, 219;
Work of the, 219.
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