Henry Longueville Mansel (6 October 1820 – 30 July 1871) was an English philosopher and ecclesiastic.

Life

He was born at Cosgrove,

Northamptonshire Northamptonshire (; abbreviated Northants.) is a county in the East Midlands of England. In 2015, it had a population of 723,000. The county is administered by two unitary authorities: North Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire. It is ...

(where his father, also Henry Longueville Mansel, fourth son of General John Mansel, was rector). He was educated at Merchant Taylors' School, London and St John's College, Oxford. He took a double first in 1843, and became tutor of his college. He was appointed reader in moral and metaphysical philosophy at

Magdalen College Magdalen College (, ) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. It was founded in 1458 by William of Waynflete. Today, it is the fourth wealthiest college, with a financial endowment of £332.1 million as of 2019 and one of the s ...

in 1855, and

Waynflete Professor of Metaphysical Philosophy The Waynflete Professorships are four professorial fellowships at the University of Oxford endowed by Magdalen College and named in honour of the college founder William of Waynflete, who had a great interest in science. These professorships are s ...

in 1859. He was a great opponent of university reform and of the Hegelianism which was then beginning to take root in Oxford. In 1867 he succeeded

Arthur Penrhyn Stanley Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, (13 December 1815 – 18 July 1881), known as Dean Stanley, was an English Anglican priest and ecclesiastical historian. He was Dean of Westminster from 1864 to 1881. His position was that of a Broad Churchman and he w ...

as regius professor of ecclesiastical history, and in 1868 he was appointed

dean of St Paul's The dean of St Paul's is a member of, and chair of the Chapter of St Paul's Cathedral in London in the Church of England. The dean of St Paul's is also ''ex officio'' dean of the Order of the British Empire. The current dean is Andrew Tremlett, ...

. He died in Cosgrove on the first of July 1871. The philosophy of Mansel, like that of Sir William Hamilton, was mainly due to

Aristotle Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatetic school of ph ...

Immanuel Kant Immanuel Kant (, , ; 22 April 1724 – 12 February 1804) was a German philosopher and one of the central Enlightenment thinkers. Born in Königsberg, Kant's comprehensive and systematic works in epistemology, metaphysics, ethics, and ...

and

Thomas Reid Thomas Reid (; 7 May ( O.S. 26 April) 1710 – 7 October 1796) was a religiously trained Scottish philosopher. He was the founder of the Scottish School of Common Sense and played an integral role in the Scottish Enlightenment. In 1783 he wa ...

. Like Hamilton, Mansel maintained the purely formal character of logic, the duality of consciousness as testifying to both self and the external world, and the limitation of knowledge to the finite and "conditioned." His doctrines were developed in his edition of Aldrich's ''Artis logicae rudimenta'' (1849) – his chief contribution to the reviving study of

– and in his ''Prolegomena logica: an Inquiry into the Psychological Character of Logical Processes'' (1851, 2nd ed. enlarged 1860), in which the limits of logic as the "science of formal thinking" are rigorously determined. In his

Bampton lectures The Bampton Lectures at the University of Oxford, England, were founded by a bequest of John Bampton. They have taken place since 1780. They were a series of annual lectures; since the turn of the 20th century they have typically been biennial ...

on ''The Limits of Religious Thought'' (1858, 5th ed. 1867; Danish trans. 1888) he applied to Christian

theology Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...

the metaphysical agnosticism which seemed to result from Kant's criticism, and which had been developed in Hamilton's ''Philosophy of the Unconditioned''. While denying all knowledge of the supersensuous, Mansel deviated from Kant in contending that cognition of the ego as it really belongs among the facts of experience. Consciousness, he held – agreeing thus with the doctrine of "natural realism" which Hamilton developed from Reid – implies knowledge both of self and of the external world. The latter Mansel's psychology reduces to consciousness of our organism as extended; with the former is given consciousness of free will and moral obligation. These lectures led Mansel to a bitter controversy with the Christian socialist theologian Frederick Maurice. A summary of Mansel's philosophy is contained in his article "Metaphysics" in the 5th edition of the ''

Encyclopædia Britannica The (Latin for "British Encyclopædia") is a general knowledge English-language encyclopaedia. It is published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.; the company has existed since the 18th century, although it has changed ownership various t ...

'' (1860). He also wrote *"Metaphysics or the Philosophy of Consciousness Phenomenal and Real" (4th ed., 1883), 408pps, Edinburgh, Adam and Charles Black *''The Philosophy of the Conditioned'' (1866) in reply to John Stuart Mill's criticism of Hamilton; * ''Letters, Lectures, and Reviews'' (ed. Chandler, 1873), *''The Gnostic Heresies of the First and Second Centuries'' (ed.

Joseph Barber Lightfoot Joseph Barber Lightfoot (13 April 1828 – 21 December 1889), known as J. B. Lightfoot, was an English theologian and Bishop of Durham. Life Lightfoot was born in Liverpool, where his father John Jackson Lightfoot was an accountant. His mo ...

, 1875, with a biographical sketch by

Lord Carnarvon Earl of Carnarvon is a title that has been created three times in British history. The current holder is George Herbert, 8th Earl of Carnarvon. The town and county in Wales to which the title refers are historically spelled ''Caernarfon,'' havi ...

). He contributed a commentary on the first two gospels to the '' Speaker's Commentary'' (1881). Mansel's mother, Maria, was the daughter of Admiral Sir

Robert Moorsom Admiral Sir Robert Moorsom KCB (8 June 1760 – 14 April 1835) was an officer of the Royal Navy who served during the American War of Independence, the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. His very active service career was especial ...

Notes

References

*Cited in Chisholm (1911): ** John William Burgon, ''Lives of Twelve Good Men'' (1888–1889) **

James Martineau James Martineau (; 21 April 1805 – 11 January 1900) was a British religious philosopher influential in the history of Unitarianism. For 45 years he was Professor of Mental and Moral Philosophy and Political Economy in Manchester New College ( ...

, ''Essays, Reviews and Addresses'' (London, 1891), iii. 117 seq. ** A. W. Benn, ''The History of English Rationalism in the Nineteenth Century'' (1906), ii. 100–112 **

David Masson David Mather Masson LLD DLitt (2 December 18226 October 1907), was a Scottish academic, supporter of women's suffrage, literary critic and historian. Biography He was born in Aberdeen, the son of William Masson, a stone-cutter, and his wi ...

, ''Recent British Philosophy'' (3rd ed., London, 1877), pp. 252 seq. ** * Kenneth D. Freeman, "The Role of Reason in Religion: A Study of Henry Mansel" (The Hague, 1969)

External links

* * *
Internet Archive book by Henry Longueville Mansel
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mansel, Henry Longueville 1820 births 1871 deaths English philosophers People from West Northamptonshire District Deans of St Paul's People educated at Merchant Taylors' School, Northwood Alumni of St John's College, Oxford Waynflete Professors of Metaphysical Philosophy Regius Professors of Ecclesiastical History English male non-fiction writers