The Derby philosophers : science and culture in British urban society, 1700-1850 / Paul A. Elliott.

Format:

• Book

Author/Creator:

• Elliott, Paul A.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

• Science and civilization--History.
• Philosophy, British--18th century.
• Philosophy, British.
• Science and civilization.
• History.
• Derby (England)--Intellectual life.
• Great Britain--Civilization.
• Great Britain.
• Civilization.

Physical Description:

x, 294 pages : illustrations, plans, portraits ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Manchester ; New York : Manchester University Press ; New York : Distributed exclusively in the USA by Palgrave Macmillan, 2009.

Summary:

• The Derby philosophers focuses upon the activities of a group of Midland intellectuals during the Enlightenment and beyond, including the evolutionist and physician Erasmus Darwin, the evangelical philosopher and poet Rev. Thomas Gisborne, Robert Bage the novelist, Charles Sylvester the chemist and engineer, William George and his son Herbert Spencer, the internationally renowned evolutionist philosopher who coined the phrase 'survival of the fittest', and members of the Wedgwood and Strutt families. The excitement of this intellectual world is evident from the fact that their circle included Benjamin Franklin, Mathew Boulton, Richard Lovell and Maria Edgeworth, Jeremy and Samuel Bentham, Robert Owen, John Claudius Loudon and the poet Thomas Moore.
• The book explores how, inspired by science and through educational activities, publications and institutions including the famous Derbyshire General Infirmary (1810) and Derby Arboretum (1840), the Derby philosophers strove to promote social, political and urban improvements with national and international consequences. Far from being a parochial history of one intellectual group or town, this book examines science, politics and culture during one of the most turbulent periods of British history, an age of political and industrial revolutions in which the Derby philosophers were closely involved.

Contents:

• 1 Politics, religion, urban culture and natural philosophy, c.1700-1770 11
• 2 Natural philosophy and utility 34
• 3 Joseph Wright, John Whitehurst and Derby philosophical culture, c.1760-1783 54
• 4 The Derby Philosophical Society 69
• 5 Dissent, politics and natural philosophy: the campaigns of the 1780s and 1790s 86
• 6 Enlightenment and improvement: the campaign for the enclosure of common lands during the 1790s 113
• 7 The Derby Literary and Philosophical Society 132
• 8 The Derbyshire General Infirmary 163
• 9 Evolution: Erasmus Darwin, William George Spencer and Herbert Spencer 190
• 10 Women and Derby scientific culture, c. 1780-1850 217
• 11 Civic science and rational recreation: the Derby Mechanics' Institute (1825) and the Derby Arboretum (1840) 235.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [276]-289) and index.

ISBN:

• 9780719079221
• 0719079225

OCLC:

303019272