What is philosophy about? According to the author of this work (published in the first series of 'English Men of Letters' in 1879) it is fundamentally the answer to the question: 'What can I know?' T. H. Huxley (1825 95), the distinguished English scientist and disciple of Darwin, succeeds in giving a clear and succinct account of the way in which Scottish philosopher David Hume (1711 56) answered this question. The book is divided into two parts: in the first, Huxley provides the reader with a sketch of Hume's life, but the main emphasis of the book is in Part 2, where by expounding Hume's...

Thomas Henry Huxley (1825 95), the English biologist and naturalist, was known as 'Darwin's Bulldog', and is best remembered today for his vociferous support for Darwin's theory of evolution. He was, however, an influential naturalist, anatomist and religious thinker, who coined the term 'agnostic' to describe his own beliefs. Almost entirely self-educated, he became an authority in anatomy and palaeontology, and after the discovery of the archaeopteryx, he was the first to suggest that birds had evolved from dinosaurs. He was also a keen promoter of scientific education who strove to make...

Thomas Henry Huxley (1825 95), the English biologist and naturalist, was known as 'Darwin's Bulldog', and is best remembered today for his vociferous support for Darwin's theory of evolution. He was, however, an influential naturalist, anatomist and religious thinker, who coined the term 'agnostic' to describe his own beliefs. Almost entirely self-educated, he became an authority in anatomy and palaeontology, and after the discovery of the archaeopteryx, he was the first to suggest that birds had evolved from dinosaurs. He was also a keen promoter of scientific education who strove to make...

Thomas Henry Huxley (1825 95), the English biologist and naturalist, was known as 'Darwin's Bulldog', and is best remembered today for his vociferous support for Darwin's theory of evolution. He was, however, an influential naturalist, anatomist and religious thinker, who coined the term 'agnostic' to describe his own beliefs. Almost entirely self-educated, he became an authority in anatomy and palaeontology, and after the discovery of the archaeopteryx, he was the first to suggest that birds had evolved from dinosaurs. He was also a keen promoter of scientific education who strove to make...