Francis Bowen
Encyclopedia
Francis Bowen was an American philosopher, writer, and educationalist.
. He was educated at Mayhew School, Boston, Phillips Exeter Academy
, and Harvard University
, graduating from the latter in 1833. While attending Harvard, he taught school at Hampton Falls, New Hampshire
, and Concord
, Lexington
and Northborough, Massachusetts
. After graduating from Harvard, he taught for two years at Phillips Exeter Academy
, returning to Harvard from 1835 to 1839 to tutor in Greek and teach intellectual philosophy and political economy. In 1839 he went to Europe, and, while living in Paris
, met Sismondi
, de Gerando
, and other scholars. He returned to Cambridge
in 1841 and devoted himself to literature. He was editor and proprietor of the North American Review
from 1843 to 1854, writing, during this time, about one fourth of the articles in it. In 1848 and 1849, he delivered lectures before the Lowell Institute
on the application of metaphysical
and ethical
science to the evidences of religion
.
In 1850 he was appointed McLean professor of history at Harvard, but his appointment was disapproved by the board of overseers on account of political opinions he had expressed concerning the Hungarian revolution of 1848
. Bowen had written two articles on Hungary for his North American Review :
The War of Races in Hungary (January 1850) and The Rebellion of the Slavonic, Wallachian, and German Hungarians against the Magyars (January 1851).
Robert Carter
wrote a series of articles for the Boston Atlas in reply. These articles, republished in a pamphlet as The Hungarian Controversy (Boston, 1852), are said to have been the cause of the rejection by the overseers of Bowen's appointment.
In the winter of 1850, Bowen lectured again before the Lowell Institute on political economy, and in 1852 on the origin and development of the English and American constitutions. In 1853, on the election of James Walker
to the presidency of Harvard, Bowen was appointed his successor as Alford professor of natural religion, moral philosophy and civil polity. This time the appointment was approved almost unanimously by the overseers, and he occupied the chair until 1889. After 1858, he lectured before the Lowell Institute on the English metaphysicians and philosophers from Francis Bacon
to Sir William Hamilton.
In 1876 he was a member of the United States Silver Commission which was appointed to consider currency reform. In 1877, he wrote the minority report in which he opposed the restoration of the double standard
and the remonetization of silver. In 1888, he was asked to endorse the Republican Party
's tariff platform, but replied by publishing an article (Nation, November 8, 1888) denouncing the current tariff as tyranny.
In philosophy and metaphysics, Bowen upheld the views of George Berkeley
and John Locke
and opposed those of Emmanuel Kant, Johann Gottlieb Fichte
, Victor Cousin
, Auguste Comte
, and John Stuart Mill
. The latter replied to his criticism in the 3rd edition of his Logic. In political economy
, Bowen opposed the doctrines of Adam Smith
on free trade, Thomas Malthus
on population, and David Ricardo
on rent. He took pains to trace the influence of our form of government and condition of society upon economical questions. A significant philosophical interest was harmonizing philosophy with Christianity
. Piety marked his writing and teaching.
He died in Boston, Massachusetts.
Biography
He was born in Charlestown, MassachusettsCharlestown, Massachusetts
Charlestown is a neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, United States, and is located on a peninsula north of downtown Boston. Charlestown was originally a separate town and the first capital of the Massachusetts Bay Colony; it became a city in 1847 and was annexed by Boston on January 5, 1874...
. He was educated at Mayhew School, Boston, Phillips Exeter Academy
Phillips Exeter Academy
Phillips Exeter Academy is a private secondary school located in Exeter, New Hampshire, in the United States.Exeter is noted for its application of Harkness education, a system based on a conference format of teacher and student interaction, similar to the Socratic method of learning through asking...
, and Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
, graduating from the latter in 1833. While attending Harvard, he taught school at Hampton Falls, New Hampshire
Hampton Falls, New Hampshire
Hampton Falls is a New England town in Rockingham County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 2,236 at the 2010 census.-History:...
, and Concord
Concord, Massachusetts
Concord is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, in the United States. As of the 2010 census, the town population was 17,668. Although a small town, Concord is noted for its leading roles in American history and literature.-History:...
, Lexington
Lexington, Massachusetts
Lexington is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 31,399 at the 2010 census. This town is famous for being the site of the first shot of the American Revolution, in the Battle of Lexington on April 19, 1775.- History :...
and Northborough, Massachusetts
Northborough, Massachusetts
Northborough is a town in Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. The official spelling of the town's name is "Northborough", but the shorter spelling "Northboro" is also used...
. After graduating from Harvard, he taught for two years at Phillips Exeter Academy
Phillips Exeter Academy
Phillips Exeter Academy is a private secondary school located in Exeter, New Hampshire, in the United States.Exeter is noted for its application of Harkness education, a system based on a conference format of teacher and student interaction, similar to the Socratic method of learning through asking...
, returning to Harvard from 1835 to 1839 to tutor in Greek and teach intellectual philosophy and political economy. In 1839 he went to Europe, and, while living in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, met Sismondi
Jean Charles Léonard de Sismondi
Jean Charles Léonard de Sismondi , whose real name was Simonde, was a writer born at Geneva. He is best known for his works on French and Italian history, and his economic ideas.-Early life:...
, de Gerando
Joseph Marie, baron de Gérando
Joseph Marie, baron de Gérando, born Joseph Marie Degérando was a French jurist, philanthropist and philosopher of Italian descent....
, and other scholars. He returned to Cambridge
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, an important center of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders. Cambridge is home to two of the world's most prominent...
in 1841 and devoted himself to literature. He was editor and proprietor of the North American Review
North American Review
The North American Review was the first literary magazine in the United States. Founded in Boston in 1815 by journalist Nathan Hale and others, it was published continuously until 1940, when publication was suspended due to J. H. Smyth, who had purchased the magazine, being unmasked as a Japanese...
from 1843 to 1854, writing, during this time, about one fourth of the articles in it. In 1848 and 1849, he delivered lectures before the Lowell Institute
Lowell Institute
The Lowell Institute is an educational foundation in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A., providing for free public lectures, and endowed by the bequest of $250,000 left by John Lowell, Jr., who died in 1836. Under the terms of his will 10% of the net income was to be added to the principal, which in...
on the application of metaphysical
Metaphysics
Metaphysics is a branch of philosophy concerned with explaining the fundamental nature of being and the world, although the term is not easily defined. Traditionally, metaphysics attempts to answer two basic questions in the broadest possible terms:...
and ethical
Ethics
Ethics, also known as moral philosophy, is a branch of philosophy that addresses questions about morality—that is, concepts such as good and evil, right and wrong, virtue and vice, justice and crime, etc.Major branches of ethics include:...
science to the evidences of religion
Religion
Religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to...
.
In 1850 he was appointed McLean professor of history at Harvard, but his appointment was disapproved by the board of overseers on account of political opinions he had expressed concerning the Hungarian revolution of 1848
Hungarian Revolution of 1848
The Hungarian Revolution of 1848 was one of many of the European Revolutions of 1848 and closely linked to other revolutions of 1848 in the Habsburg areas...
. Bowen had written two articles on Hungary for his North American Review :
The War of Races in Hungary (January 1850) and The Rebellion of the Slavonic, Wallachian, and German Hungarians against the Magyars (January 1851).
Robert Carter
Robert Carter (editor)
Robert Carter was a United States editor, historian and author. He was involved in the formation of the Republican Party.-Education:...
wrote a series of articles for the Boston Atlas in reply. These articles, republished in a pamphlet as The Hungarian Controversy (Boston, 1852), are said to have been the cause of the rejection by the overseers of Bowen's appointment.
In the winter of 1850, Bowen lectured again before the Lowell Institute on political economy, and in 1852 on the origin and development of the English and American constitutions. In 1853, on the election of James Walker
James Walker (Harvard)
James Walker was a Unitarian minister, professor, and President of Harvard College from February 10, 1853, to January 26, 1860....
to the presidency of Harvard, Bowen was appointed his successor as Alford professor of natural religion, moral philosophy and civil polity. This time the appointment was approved almost unanimously by the overseers, and he occupied the chair until 1889. After 1858, he lectured before the Lowell Institute on the English metaphysicians and philosophers from Francis Bacon
Francis Bacon
Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Albans, KC was an English philosopher, statesman, scientist, lawyer, jurist, author and pioneer of the scientific method. He served both as Attorney General and Lord Chancellor of England...
to Sir William Hamilton.
In 1876 he was a member of the United States Silver Commission which was appointed to consider currency reform. In 1877, he wrote the minority report in which he opposed the restoration of the double standard
Bimetallism
In economics, bimetallism is a monetary standard in which the value of the monetary unit is defined as equivalent both to a certain quantity of gold and to a certain quantity of silver; such a system establishes a fixed rate of exchange between the two metals...
and the remonetization of silver. In 1888, he was asked to endorse the Republican Party
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
's tariff platform, but replied by publishing an article (Nation, November 8, 1888) denouncing the current tariff as tyranny.
In philosophy and metaphysics, Bowen upheld the views of George Berkeley
George Berkeley
George Berkeley , also known as Bishop Berkeley , was an Irish philosopher whose primary achievement was the advancement of a theory he called "immaterialism"...
and John Locke
John Locke
John Locke FRS , widely known as the Father of Liberalism, was an English philosopher and physician regarded as one of the most influential of Enlightenment thinkers. Considered one of the first of the British empiricists, following the tradition of Francis Bacon, he is equally important to social...
and opposed those of Emmanuel Kant, Johann Gottlieb Fichte
Johann Gottlieb Fichte
Johann Gottlieb Fichte was a German philosopher. He was one of the founding figures of the philosophical movement known as German idealism, a movement that developed from the theoretical and ethical writings of Immanuel Kant...
, Victor Cousin
Victor Cousin
Victor Cousin was a French philosopher. He was a proponent of Scottish Common Sense Realism and had an important influence on French educational policy.-Early life:...
, Auguste Comte
Auguste Comte
Isidore Auguste Marie François Xavier Comte , better known as Auguste Comte , was a French philosopher, a founder of the discipline of sociology and of the doctrine of positivism...
, and John Stuart Mill
John Stuart Mill
John Stuart Mill was a British philosopher, economist and civil servant. An influential contributor to social theory, political theory, and political economy, his conception of liberty justified the freedom of the individual in opposition to unlimited state control. He was a proponent of...
. The latter replied to his criticism in the 3rd edition of his Logic. In political economy
Political economy
Political economy originally was the term for studying production, buying, and selling, and their relations with law, custom, and government, as well as with the distribution of national income and wealth, including through the budget process. Political economy originated in moral philosophy...
, Bowen opposed the doctrines of Adam Smith
Adam Smith
Adam Smith was a Scottish social philosopher and a pioneer of political economy. One of the key figures of the Scottish Enlightenment, Smith is the author of The Theory of Moral Sentiments and An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations...
on free trade, Thomas Malthus
Thomas Malthus
The Reverend Thomas Robert Malthus FRS was an English scholar, influential in political economy and demography. Malthus popularized the economic theory of rent....
on population, and David Ricardo
David Ricardo
David Ricardo was an English political economist, often credited with systematising economics, and was one of the most influential of the classical economists, along with Thomas Malthus, Adam Smith, and John Stuart Mill. He was also a member of Parliament, businessman, financier and speculator,...
on rent. He took pains to trace the influence of our form of government and condition of society upon economical questions. A significant philosophical interest was harmonizing philosophy with Christianity
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
. Piety marked his writing and teaching.
He died in Boston, Massachusetts.
Works
- Lives of Sir William PhipsWilliam PhipsSir William Phips was a shipwright, ship's captain, treasure hunter, military leader, and the first royally-appointed governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay....
(1837), Baron von Steuben (1838), James OtisJames Otis, Jr.James Otis, Jr. was a lawyer in colonial Massachusetts, a member of the Massachusetts provincial assembly, and an early advocate of the political views that led to the American Revolution. The phrase "Taxation without Representation is Tyranny" is usually attributed to him...
(1846) and Benjamin LincolnBenjamin LincolnBenjamin Lincoln was an American army officer. He served as a major general in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War...
(1847) in Jared SparksJared SparksJared Sparks was an American historian, educator, and Unitarian minister. He served as President of Harvard University from 1849 to 1853.-Biography:...
's Library of American Biography - Virgil, with English Notes (Boston, 1842)
- Critical Essays on the History and Present Condition of Speculative Philosophy (Boston, 1842)
- Lectures on the “Application of Metaphysical and Ethical Science to the Evidences of Religion” (Lowell Institute Lectures, 1849; revised ed. 1855)
- Lectures on Political Economy (1850)
- Dugald StewartDugald StewartDugald Stewart was a Scottish Enlightenment philosopher and mathematician. His father, Matthew Stewart , was professor of mathematics in the University of Edinburgh .-Life and works:...
, Philosophy of the Human Mind, editor (1854) - Documents of the Constitution of England and America, from Magna Charta to the Federal Constitution of 1789 (Cambridge, 1854)
- The Principles of Political Economy applied to the Condition, Resources and Institutions of the American People (1856)
- Alexis de TocquevilleAlexis de TocquevilleAlexis-Charles-Henri Clérel de Tocqueville was a French political thinker and historian best known for his Democracy in America and The Old Regime and the Revolution . In both of these works, he explored the effects of the rising equality of social conditions on the individual and the state in...
, Democracy in AmericaDemocracy in AmericaDe la démocratie en Amérique is a classic French text by Alexis de Tocqueville. A "literal" translation of its title is Of Democracy in America, but the usual translation of the title is simply Democracy in America...
, Henry ReeveHenry ReeveHenry Reeve was an English journalist.-Biography:He was the younger son of Henry Reeve, a Whig physician and writer from Norwich, and was born at Norwich. He was educated at the Norwich grammar school under Edward Valpy. During his holidays he saw a good deal of the young John Stuart Mill...
, tr., revised edition (2 vols., Cambridge, 1862) - A Treatise on Logic (1864)
- American Political Economy, with remarks on the finances since the beginning of the Civil WarAmerican Civil WarThe American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
(1870) - Modern Philosophy from DescartesRené DescartesRené Descartes ; was a French philosopher and writer who spent most of his adult life in the Dutch Republic. He has been dubbed the 'Father of Modern Philosophy', and much subsequent Western philosophy is a response to his writings, which are studied closely to this day...
to SchopenhauerArthur SchopenhauerArthur Schopenhauer was a German philosopher known for his pessimism and philosophical clarity. At age 25, he published his doctoral dissertation, On the Fourfold Root of the Principle of Sufficient Reason, which examined the four separate manifestations of reason in the phenomenal...
and HartmannKarl Robert Eduard von HartmannKarl Robert Eduard von Hartmann , was a German philosopher.- Biography :He was born in Berlin, and educated with the intention of a military career. He entered the artillery of the Guards as an officer in 1860, but was forced to leave in 1865 because of a knee problem...
(1877) - Gleanings from a Literary Life, 1838-1880 (1880).
- A Layman's Study of the English Bible, considered in its Literary and Secular Aspect (1886)
See also
- American philosophyAmerican philosophyAmerican philosophy is the philosophical activity or output of Americans, both within the United States and abroad. The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy notes that while American philosophy lacks a "core of defining features, American Philosophy can nevertheless be seen as both reflecting and...
- List of American philosophers
- Mary Traill Spence Lowell PutnamMary Traill Spence Lowell PutnamMary Traill Spence Lowell Putnam was a United States author.-Biography:...