A Most Eminent Victorian: Thomas Henry Huxley
Huxley coined the word agnostic to describe his own philosophical framework in part to distinguish himself from materialists, atheists, and positivists. In this paper I will elaborate on exactly what Huxley meant by agnosticism by discussing his views on the distinctions he drew between philosophy a...
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Presses Universitaires de la Méditerranée
2012-10-01
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| Series: | Cahiers Victoriens et Edouardiens |
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| Online Access: | https://journals.openedition.org/cve/526 |
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| author | Sherrie Lyons |
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| author_sort | Sherrie Lyons |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Huxley coined the word agnostic to describe his own philosophical framework in part to distinguish himself from materialists, atheists, and positivists. In this paper I will elaborate on exactly what Huxley meant by agnosticism by discussing his views on the distinctions he drew between philosophy and science, science and theology, and between theology and religion. His claim that theology belonged to the realm of the intellect while religion belonged to the realm of feeling served as an important strategy in his defense of evolution. Approaching Darwin’s theory in the spirit of Goethe’s Thatige Skepsis or active skepticism, he showed that most of the “scientific” objections to evolution were at their root religiously based. Huxley maintained that the question of “man’s place in nature” should be approached independently of the question of origins, yet at the same time argued passionately and eloquently that even if humans shared a common a origin with the apes, this did not make humans any less special. Because evolution was so intertwined with the questions of belief, of morals and of ethics, and Huxley was the foremost defender of Darwin’s ideas in the English-speaking world, he was at the center of the discussions as Victorians struggled with trying to reconcile the growing gulf between science and faith. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-01d67904b9eb4ef2825e078dcdd93284 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 0220-5610 2271-6149 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2012-10-01 |
| publisher | Presses Universitaires de la Méditerranée |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Cahiers Victoriens et Edouardiens |
| spelling | doaj-art-01d67904b9eb4ef2825e078dcdd932842025-01-30T10:21:48ZengPresses Universitaires de la MéditerranéeCahiers Victoriens et Edouardiens0220-56102271-61492012-10-01768510410.4000/cve.526A Most Eminent Victorian: Thomas Henry HuxleySherrie LyonsHuxley coined the word agnostic to describe his own philosophical framework in part to distinguish himself from materialists, atheists, and positivists. In this paper I will elaborate on exactly what Huxley meant by agnosticism by discussing his views on the distinctions he drew between philosophy and science, science and theology, and between theology and religion. His claim that theology belonged to the realm of the intellect while religion belonged to the realm of feeling served as an important strategy in his defense of evolution. Approaching Darwin’s theory in the spirit of Goethe’s Thatige Skepsis or active skepticism, he showed that most of the “scientific” objections to evolution were at their root religiously based. Huxley maintained that the question of “man’s place in nature” should be approached independently of the question of origins, yet at the same time argued passionately and eloquently that even if humans shared a common a origin with the apes, this did not make humans any less special. Because evolution was so intertwined with the questions of belief, of morals and of ethics, and Huxley was the foremost defender of Darwin’s ideas in the English-speaking world, he was at the center of the discussions as Victorians struggled with trying to reconcile the growing gulf between science and faith.https://journals.openedition.org/cve/526beliefVictorian timesBibleagnosticismMetaphysical Societyconversion |
| spellingShingle | Sherrie Lyons A Most Eminent Victorian: Thomas Henry Huxley Cahiers Victoriens et Edouardiens belief Victorian times Bible agnosticism Metaphysical Society conversion |
| title | A Most Eminent Victorian: Thomas Henry Huxley |
| title_full | A Most Eminent Victorian: Thomas Henry Huxley |
| title_fullStr | A Most Eminent Victorian: Thomas Henry Huxley |
| title_full_unstemmed | A Most Eminent Victorian: Thomas Henry Huxley |
| title_short | A Most Eminent Victorian: Thomas Henry Huxley |
| title_sort | most eminent victorian thomas henry huxley |
| topic | belief Victorian times Bible agnosticism Metaphysical Society conversion |
| url | https://journals.openedition.org/cve/526 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT sherrielyons amosteminentvictorianthomashenryhuxley AT sherrielyons mosteminentvictorianthomashenryhuxley |