A Teacher
Henry Sidgwick
A rigorous Cambridge moral philosopher who lent intellectual respectability to the scientific study of the paranormal.
The transmission
Henry Sidgwick (1838–1900) was an English utilitarian philosopher and Knightbridge Professor of Moral Philosophy at Cambridge, best known for his treatise The Methods of Ethics (1874).
In 1882 he became the founding president of the Society for Psychical Research, the first organisation to apply systematic scientific methods to phenomena such as telepathy, mediumship, and apparitions. He had begun experiments with F.
W. H. Myers as early as 1873 and was also a leading advocate of women’s education, helping found Newnham College, Cambridge.
What they gave
Scholarly credibility for the paranormal: As founding president of the Society for Psychical Research (1882), he lent a rigorous moral philosopher’s respectability to the study of telepathy, mediumship, and apparitions.
- Systematic method: Helped make the SPR the first body to apply systematic scientific methods to psychical phenomena.
- Early experiments: Began telepathy experiments with F. W. H. Myers as early as 1873, before the field had institutional form.
- The Methods of Ethics: Authored a landmark utilitarian treatise, grounding his psychical work in disciplined philosophical argument.
In their words
I say it is a scandal that the dispute as to the reality of these phenomena should still be going on, that so many competent witnesses should have declared their belief in them, that so many others should be profoundly interested in having the question determined, and yet that the educated world, as a body, should still be simply in the attitude of incredulity.
The line they stand in
Taught by / Influenced by: John Stuart Mill; and Immanuel Kant.
- Taught / Influenced: Frederic W. H. Myers; William James; and G. E. Moore.
Revelations they taught
Essential Works
- The Methods of Ethics1874
- Presidential Address to the Society for Psychical Research1882