The Papers of the Metaphysical Society, 1869-1880 A Critical Edition

The Metaphysical Society was founded in 1869 at the instigation of James Knowles (editor of the Contemporary Review and then of the Nineteenth Century) with a view to "collect, arrange, and diffuse Knowledge (whether objective or subjective) of mental and moral phenomena " (first resolution of the Society in April 1869). The Society was a private club which gathered together a latter-day clerisy. Building on the tradition of the Cambridge Apostles, they elected talented members from across the Victorian intellectual spectrum: Bishops, one Cardinal, philosophers, men of science, literary figures, and politicians. The Society included in its 62 members prominent figures such as T. H. Huxley, William Gladstone, Walter Bagehot, Henry Edward Manning, John Ruskin and Alfred Lord Tennyson. The papers they produced are key primary sources which shed new light on the ideas of their authors on the burning subjects of the day, ranging from the existence and personality of God to the nature of conscience or the existence of the soul. They are a legacy of a period when intellectuals were wondering how, and what, to believe in a time of social change, spiritual crisis, and scientific progress. The dissolution of the Society in 1880 did not diminish the value of the papers: they illustrate a tradition of private, open discussion among famous men of the most widely varying views; they offer detailed insight into the evolution of the relationships between different schools of Victorian scientific and religious thought; and they bring to light heretofore under-represented points of conflict and harmony. All 95 papers are included, accompanied by introductions and scholarly notes that set each paper into their proper context.

1 - 2 June 1869, "On Mr. H. Spencer's Theory of the Gradual Transformation of Utilitarian into Intuitive Morality by Hereditary Descent"
2 - 14 July 1869, "The Common Sense Philosophy of Causation"
3 - 17 November 1869, "The Views of Hume, Kant, and Whately upon the Logical Basis of the Doctrine of the Immortality of the Soul"
4 - 15 December 1869, "On Memory as an Intuitive Faculty"
5 - 12 January 1870, "The Moral Condition of Savages"
6 - 9 February 1870, "What is Matter?"
7 - 16 March 1870, "On the Theory of a Soul"
8 - 27 April 1870, "The Verification of Beliefs"
9 - 15 June 1870, "Is There Any 'Axiom of Causality'? "
10 - 13 July 1870, "The Relativity of Knowledge"
11 - 8 November 1870,"Has a Frog a Soul; and of What Nature is That Soul, Supposing it to Exist?"
12 - 13 December 1870, "On the Emotion of Conviction"
13 - 11 January 1871, "What is the Relation of the Will to Thought?"
14 - 8 February 1871, "On the Nature and Origin of the Moral Ideas"
15 - 14 March 1871, "On the Absolute"
16 - 25 April 1871, "Theorem: The Range of Intellectual Conception is Proportioned to the Rank in Animated Life"
17 - 16 May 1871, "Evidence"
18 - 13 June 1871, "Mr. Herbert Spencer on Moral Intuitions and Moral Sentiments"
19 - 11 July 1871, "What is Death?"
20 - 21 November 1871, "On the Words 'Nature;' 'Natural,' and 'Supernatural'"
21 - 19 December 1871, "Do We Form Our Opinions on External Authority?"
22 - 17 January 1872, "What is Common Sense?"
23 - 13 February 1872, " Wherein Consists the Special Beauty of Imperfection and Decay?"
24 - 12 March 1872, "Are Numbers and Geometrical Figures Real Things?"
25 - 9 April 1872, "The Arguments for a Future Life"
26 - 14 May 1872, "That Legitimate Authority is an Evidence of Truth"
27 - 11 June 1872, "Is God Unknowable?"
28 - 9 July 1872, "On the Supposed Necessity of Certain Metaphysical Problems"
29 - 12 November 1872, "Five Idols of the Theatre"
30 - 10 December 1872, "Can Experience Prove the Uniformity of Nature?"
31 - 14 January 1873, "Darwinians and Idealists"
32 - 11 February 1873, "The Nature and Authority of Miracle"
33 - 11 March 1873, "Faith and Knowledge"
34 - 8 April 1873, "On Will"
35 - 13 May 1873, "The Action of So Called Motives"
36 - 10 June 1873, "A Diagnosis and Prescription"
37 - 8 July 1873, "Euthanasia"
38 - 8 July 1873, "Oral Communication on Euthanasia"
39 - 18 November 1873, "On the Relation of the Organic and Inorganic Worlds"
40 - 16 December 1873, "Utilitarianism"
41 - 13 January 1874, "The Speculative Method"
42 - 10 February 1874, "The Metaphysical Basis of Toleration"
43 - 10 March 1874, "Some Thoughts on Necessary Truth"
44 - 14 April 1874, "Latent Thought"
45 - 12 May 1874, "The Personality of God"
46 - 9 June 1874, "On the Nature of Things in Themselves"
47 - 14 July 1874, "A Reply on Necessary Truth?"
48 - 17 November 1874, "On the Doctrine of Human Automatism"
49 - 8 December 1874, "Can Truths be Apprehended Which Could not Have Been Discovered?"
50 - 12 January 1875, "On a Theory of Dr. Newman's as to Believing in Mysteries"
51 - 9 February 1875, "Will and Responsibility"
52 - 9 March 1875, "The Scientific Basis of Morals"
53 - 13 April 1875, "Hospitals for Incurables Considered from a Moral Point of View"
54 - 11 May 1875, "Theorem: Social Policy Must Be Based on the Scientific Principle of Natural Selection"
55 - 8 June 1875, "The Right of Man over the Lower Animals"
56 - 13 July 1875, "The Theory of Evolution in its Application to Practice"
57 - 9 November 1875, "Remarks on the Proof of Miracles"
58 - 14 December 1875, "On the Fallacies of Testimony in Relation to the Supernatural"
59 - 11 January 1876, "The Evidence of the Miracle of the Resurrection"
60 - 14 March 1876, "The Pre-Suppositions of Miracles"
61 - 11 April 1876, "The Ethics of Belief"
62 - 9 May1876, "The Persistence of the Religious Feeling"
63 - 13 June 1876, "What is the Good of Truth?"
64 - 11 July 1876, "What is a Lie?"
65 - 14 November 1876, "How Do We Come by Our Knowledge?"
66 - 12 December 1876, "The Effect of a Decline of Religious Belief on Morality"
67 - 9 January 1877, "The Soul before and after Death" Part I
68 - 13 February 1877, "The Soul before and after Death" Part II
69 - 13 March 1877, "Authority in Matters of Opinion"
70 - 17 April 1877, "The Supposed Conflict between Efficient and Final Causation"
71 - 8 May 1877, "Matter and Force"
72 - 12 June 1877, "Belief and Evidence"
73 - 10 July 1877, "On Ideas as a Force"
74 - 13 November 1877, "On the Relation of Evidence to Conviction"
75 - 11 December 1877, "Various Definitions of Materialism"
76 - 15 January 1878, "The Relation of Psychogony to Metaphysics and Ethics"
77 - 12 February 1878, "Double Truth"
78 - 9 April 1878, "Has a Metaphysical Society any Raison d'etre?"
79 - 11 June 1878, "The Ethics of Persecution"
80 - 9 July 1878, "The Limits of Philanthropy"
81 - 12 November 1878, "Is Monism Tenable?"
82 - 17 December 1878, "Is 'Lapsed Intelligence' a Probable Origin for Complex Animal Instincts?"
83 - 14 January 1879, "Incoherence of Empirical Philosophy"
84 - 11 February 1879, "On the Utility of Truth"
85 - 11 March 1879, "The Uniformity of Nature"
86 - 8 April 1879, "The Religion of Emotion"
87 - 27 May 1879, "The Objective Certainty of the Immaterial World"
88 - 10 June 1879, "The Social Factor in Psychology"
89 - 25 November 1879, "What is Philosophy?"
90 - 9 December 1879, "Is Causation or Power in Nature a Reality, or a Mere Anthropomorphic Fancy?"
91 - 13 January 1880, "What Are the Elements of a Sensation?"
92 - 10 February 1880, "The Scope of Metaphysics"
93 - 9 March 1880, "Generic and Symbolic Images"
94 - 13 April 1880, "The Relation of Metaphysics to the Rest of Philosophy"
95 - 11 May 1880, "The Recent Phase of the Free-Will Controversy"