William Whewell

Born on 24 May 1794 in Lancaster, England, William Whewell was a polymath who wrote extensively on the history and philosophy of science and was influential in the development of peer review. The son of a carpenter, Whewell excelled at school and won a scholarship in 1812 to enter Trinity College, Cambridge, where he would spend most of his career. After graduating in 1816 and being elected a fellow in 1817, Whewell went on to hold a number of positions at Trinity. He was appointed mathematics lecturer and assistant tutor in 1818, professor of mineralogy in 1828, professor of moral philosophy in 1838, and finally college master in 1841. In 1825 he was also ordained an Anglican priest. In addition, Whewell served as vice chancellor of Cambridge University in 1842 and again in 1855. Whewell’s interests were broad, and over his career he studied and wrote on a wide variety of subjects, including architecture, astronomy, geology, mathematics, mineralogy, philosophy, physics, poetry, and theology. He gained a reputation for being a scientific wordsmith, coining such new terms as “anode,” “cathode,” “ion,” “physicist,” and “scientist,” many at the request of such eminent friends as scientist Michael Faraday and poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Whewell’s works on the history and philosophy of science include his three-volume History of the Inductive Sciences, from the Earliest to the Present Time. In 1831 he suggested that the Royal Society commission written reports from experts on papers submitted for publication in its prestigious Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. The Society followed that recommendation and enacted a system of peer review . Whewell died at age 71 in 1866 of injuries sustained from falling off his horse. (Photo credit: Trinity College, University of Cambridge)

Date in History: 24 May 1794