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JAMES FREDERICK FERRIER (1808-1864)

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Originally appearing in Volume V10, Page 288 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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JAMES See also:FREDERICK See also:FERRIER (1808-1864)  , Scottish metaphysical writer, was See also:born in See also:Edinburgh on the 16th of See also:June 18o8, the son of See also:John See also:Ferrier, writer to the signet . His See also:mother was a See also:sister of John See also:Wilson (See also:Christopher See also:North) . He was educated at the university of Edinburgh and Magdalen See also:College, See also:Oxford, and subsequently, his metaphysical tastes having been fostered by his intimate friend, See also:Sir See also:William See also:Hamilton, spent some See also:time at See also:Heidelberg studying See also:German See also:philosophy . In 1842 he was appointed See also:professor of See also:civil See also:history in Edinburgh University, and in 1845 professor of moral philosophy and See also:political See also:economy at St See also:Andrews . He was twice an unsuccessful See also:candidate for chairs in Edinburgh, for that of moral philosophy on Wilson's resignation in 1852, and for that of See also:logic and See also:metaphysics in 1856, after Hamilton's See also:death . He remained at St Andrews till his death on the 11th of June 1864 . He married his See also:cousin, See also:Margaret See also:Anne, daughter of John Wilson . He had five See also:children, one of whom became the wife of Sir See also:Alexander See also:Grant . Ferrier's first contribution to metaphysics was a See also:series of articles in See also:Blackwood's See also:Magazine (1838–1839), entitled An Introduction to the Philosophy of Consciousness . In these he condemns previous philosophers for ignoring in their psycho-logical investigations the fact of consciousness, which is the distinctive feature of See also:man, and confining their observation to the so-called " states of the mind." Consciousness comes into manifestation only when the man has used the word " I " with full knowledge of what it means . This notion he must originate within himself . Consciousness cannot See also:spring from the states which are its See also:object, for it is in antagonism to them .

It originates in the will, which in the See also:

act of consciousness puts the " I " in the See also:place of our sensations . Morality, See also:conscience, and responsibility are necessary results of consciousness . These articles were succeeded by a number of others, of which the most important were The Crisis of See also:Modern See also:Speculation (1841), See also:Berkeley and See also:Idealism (1842), and an important examination of Hamilton's edition of See also:Reid (1847), which contains a vigorous attack on the philosophy of See also:common sense . The See also:perception of See also:matter is pronounced to be the ne plus ultra of thought, and Reid, for presuming to analyse it, is declared to be a representationist in fact, although he professed to be an intuitionist . A distinction is made between the " perception of matter " and " our See also:apprehension of the perception of matter." See also:Psychology vainly tries to analyse the former . Metaphysic shows the latter alone to be analysable, and separates the subjective See also:element, " our apprehension," from the See also:objective element, " the perception of matter,"—not matter per se, but the perception of matter is the existence See also:independent of the individual's thought . It cannot, however, be independent of thought . It must belong to some mind, and is therefore the See also:property of the Divine Mind . There, he thinks, is an indestructible See also:foundation for the a priori See also:argument for the existence of See also:God . Ferrier's matured philosophical doctrines find expression in the Institutes of Metaphysics (1854), in which he claims to have met the twofold See also:obligation resting on every See also:system of philosophy, that it should be reasoned and true . His method is that of See also:Spinoza, strict demonstration, or at least an See also:attempt at it . All the errors of natural thinking and psychology must fall under one or other of three topics: Knowing and the Known, See also:Ignorance, and Being .

These are all-comprehensive, and are therefore the departments into which philosophy is divided, for the See also:

sole end of philosophy is to correct the inadvertencies of See also:ordinary thinking . The problems of knowing and the known are treated in the " See also:Epistemology or Theory of Knowing." The truth that " along with whatever any intelligence knows it must, as the ground or See also:condition of its knowledge, have some See also:cognizance of itself," is the basis of the whole philosophical system . Object+subject, thing+me, is the only possible knowable . This leads to the conclusion that the only independent universe which any mind can think of is the universe in See also:synthesis with some other mind or ego . The leading See also:contradiction which is corrected in the " See also:Agnoiology or Theory of Ignorance " is this: that there can be an ignorance of that of which there can be no knowledge . Ignorance is a defect . But there is no defect in not knowing what cannotbe known by any intelligence (e.g. that two and two make five), and therefore there can be an ignorance only of that of which there can be a knowledge, i.e. of some-object-plus-some-subject . The knowable alone is the ignorable . Ferrier See also:lays See also:special claim to originality for this See also:division of the Institutes . The " See also:Ontology or Theory of Being " forms the third and final division . It contains a discussion of the origin of knowledge, in which Ferrier traces all the perplexities and errors of philosophers to the See also:assumption of the See also:absolute existence of matter . The conclusion arrived at is that the only true real and independent existences are minds-together-with-that-which-theyapprehend, and that the one strictly necessary absolute existence is a supreme and See also:infinite and See also:everlasting mind in synthesis with all things .

Ferrier's See also:

works are remarkable for an unusual See also:charm and simplicity of See also:style . These qualities are especially noticeable in the Lectures on See also:Greek Philosophy, one of the best introductions on the subject in the See also:English See also:language . A See also:complete edition of his philosophical writings was published in 1875, with a memoir by E . L . Lushington; see also monograph by E . S . See also:Haldane in the Famous Scots Series .

End of Article: JAMES FREDERICK FERRIER (1808-1864)
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