Chauncey Wright: Forgotten American Philosopher

Abstract

CHAUNCEY WRIGHT's analyses of the structure and methods of science were probably even more penetrating than those of John Stuart Mill; his precise characterization of English empiricism was an equally important achievement in general philosophy. In empirical psychology he introduced the Darwinian concepts of minute variation and natural selection to account for the origin of self-consciousness, but only recently has the historical importance of his writings been at all recognized, and even then chiefly by writers who share the view that he anticipated the philosophy known as pragmatism.' The neglect of so important a figure in the history of American thought may in part be explained by Wright's retiring personality and unsensational career. In his autobiographical sketch for the Harvard Class Book of 1858 Wright wrote, the earliest period of my conscious life I have shrunk from everything of a startling or dramatic character. I was indisposed to active exercise, to any kind of excitement or change. That this attitude persisted is evident from the uneventful character of his later life. From 1852 to 1870 he was a computer for the Nautical Almanac; he lectured twice at Harvard College-in psychology in 1870 and mathematical physics in 1874-and occasionally tutored private pupils; in 1860 he was elected a fellow of the Academy of Arts and Sciences; he visited Darwin in England in 1872; and between 1864 and 1875 he contributed numerous articles to the North American Review and the Nation.