ABSTRACT
Among the most prodigious of English minds of the nineteenth century, William Whewell (1794-1866) was at various times, and among other things, philosopher, intellectual historian, scientist, educationist, theologian, economist, student of Gothic architecture, classicist. ‘Science is his [Whewell’s] forte and omniscience his foible’, quipped Sidney Smith. Born at Lancaster, son of a master-carpenter, Whewell won in 1812 an exhibition to Cambridge University whose most famous College-Trinity-he went on to serve continuously from 1817, initially as a Fellow then from 1841 as Master, to his untimely death from a riding accident.
