Whewell, William

AbstractWilliam Whewell (1794–1866) developed and vigorously defended an impressive, deeply historically informed intuitionism (seeIntuitionism, Moral) at odds with the secular and theological forms of utilitarianism (seeUtilitarianism) gaining currency in his day. Although various influential critics complained that his view was no more than a simplistic intuitionism used to defend unreflective commonsense morality – by claiming that everyone just sees, clearly and distinctly, that promise‐keeping, truth‐telling, etc., are right – Whewell knowledgeably countered that charge. He held that the theory of morality, once philosophically developed and refined, yielded a system ofa priorimoral truths, and that these were apprehended intuitively but discovered and tested historically and empirically. This approach, for Whewell and his defenders, marked a productive middle path between pure rationalism, emphasizing the role of reason (rational insight or intuition) in grounding knowledge independently of sense experience, and pure empiricism, emphasizing the role of sense experience in grounding knowledge.