Online Encyclopedia

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

WILLIAM KINGDON CLIFFORD (1845-1879)

Online Encyclopedia
Originally appearing in Volume V06, Page 508 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
Spread the word: del.icio.us del.icio.us it!

See also:

WILLIAM KINGDON See also:CLIFFORD (1845-1879)  , See also:English mathematician and philosopher, was See also:born on the 4th of May 1845 at See also:Exeter, where his See also:father was a prominent See also:citizen . He was educated at a private school in his native See also:town, at See also:King's See also:College, See also:London, and at Trinity College, See also:Cambridge, where he was elected See also:fellow in 1868, after being second wrangler in 1867 and second See also:Smith's prizeman . In 1871 he was appointed See also:professor of See also:mathematics at University College, London, and in 1874 became fellow of the Royal Society . In 1875 he married See also:Lucy, daughter of See also:John See also:Lane of See also:Barbados . In 1876 See also:Clifford, a See also:man of high-strung and athletic, but not robust, physique, began to fall into See also:ill-See also:health, and after two voyages to the See also:South, died during the third of pulmonary See also:consumption at See also:Madeira, on the 3rd of See also:March 1879, leaving his widow with two daughters . Mrs W . K . Clifford soon earned for herself a prominent See also:place in English See also:literary See also:life as a novelist, and later as a dramatist . Her best-known See also:story, Mrs See also:Keith's See also:Crime (1885), was followed by several other volumes, the best of which is Aunt See also:Anne (1893) ; and the literary See also:talent in the See also:family was inherited by her daughter Ethel (Mrs See also:Fisher See also:Dilke), a writer of some charming See also:verse . Owing to his See also:early See also:death, Professor Clifford's abilities and achievements cannot be fairly judged without reference to the See also:opinion formed of him by his contemporaries . He impressed every one as a man of extraordinary acuteness and originality; and these solid gifts were set off to the highest See also:advantage by quickness of thought and speech, a lucid See also:style, wit and poetic See also:fancy, and a social warmth which made him delightful as a friend and See also:companion . His See also:powers as a mathematician were of the highest See also:order .

It harmonizes with the See also:

concrete visualizing turn of his mind that, to quote Professor See also:Henry Smith, "Clifford was above all and before all a geometer." In this he was an innovator against the excessively See also:analytic tendency of Cambridge mathematicians . In his theory of graphs, or geometrical representations of algebraic functions, there are valuable suggestions which have been worked out by others . He was much interested, too, in universal See also:algebra, non-Euclidean See also:geometry and elliptic functions, his papers " Preliminary See also:Sketch of Bi-See also:quaternions " (1873) and " On the Canonical See also:Form and See also:Dissection of a See also:Riemann's See also:Surface " (1877) ranking as See also:classics . Another important paperis his " See also:Classification of Loci " (1878) . He also published several papers on algebraic forms and projective geometry . As a philosopher Clifford's name is chiefly associated with two phrases of his coining, " mind-stuff " and the " tribal self." The former symbolizes his metaphysical conception, which was suggested to him by his See also:reading of See also:Spinoza . " Briefly put," says See also:Sir F . See also:Pollock, " the conception is that mind is the one ultimate reality; not mind as we know it in the complex forms of conscious feeling and thought, but the simpler elements out of which thought and feeling are built up . The hypothetical ultimate See also:element of mind, or See also:atom of mind-stuff, precisely corresponds to the hypothetical atom of See also:matter, being the ultimate fact of which the material atom is the phenomenon . Matter and the sensible universe are the relations between particular organisms, that is, mind organized into consciousness, and the See also:rest of the See also:world . This leads to results which would in a loose and popular sense be called materialist . But the theory must, as a metaphysical theory, be reckoned on the idealist See also:side .

To speak technically, it is an idealist See also:

monism." The other phrase, " tribal self," gives the See also:key to Clifford's ethical view, which explains See also:conscience and the moral See also:law by the development in each individual of a " self," which prescribes the conduct conducive to the welfare of the " tribe." Much of Clifford's contemporary prominence was due to his attitude towards See also:religion . Animated by an intense love of truth and devotion to public See also:duty, he waged See also:war on such ecclesiastical systems as seemed to him to favour obscurantism, and to put the claims of See also:sect above those of human society . The alarm was greater, as See also:theology was still unreconciled with the Darwinian theory; and Clifford was regarded as a dangerous See also:champion of the See also:anti-spiritual tendencies then imputed to See also:modern See also:science . His See also:works, published wholly or in See also:part since his death, are Elements of Dynamic (1879–1887); Seeing and Thinking, popular science lectures 1879) ; Lectures and Essays, with an introduction by Sir F . Pollock 1879) ; Mathematical Papers, edited by R . See also:Tucker, with an introduction by Henry J . S . Smith (1882) ; and The See also:Common Sense of the Exact Sciences, completed by Professor Karl See also:Pearson (1885) .

End of Article: WILLIAM KINGDON CLIFFORD (1845-1879)
[back]
JOHN CLIFFORD (1836- )
[next]
CLIFTON

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." Paste it into a website, email, or other HTML document.