Emily Elizabeth Constance Jones (19 February 1848 – 9 April 1922), better known as Constance Jones or E. E. Constance Jones, was an English
philosopher
Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...
and educator. She worked in
logic
Logic is the study of correct reasoning. It includes both formal and informal logic. Formal logic is the study of deductively valid inferences or logical truths. It examines how conclusions follow from premises based on the structure o ...
and
ethics
Ethics is the philosophy, philosophical study of Morality, moral phenomena. Also called moral philosophy, it investigates Normativity, normative questions about what people ought to do or which behavior is morally right. Its main branches inclu ...
and served as mistress of
Girton College, Cambridge
Girton College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was established in 1869 by Emily Davies and Barbara Bodichon as the first women's college at Cambridge. In 1948, it was granted full college status by the un ...
from 1903 to 1916.
Life and career
Emily Elizabeth Constance Jones was born at Langstone Court,
Llangarron
Llangarron is a small village and civil parish in southwest Herefordshire within of both Ross-on-Wye (Herefordshire, England) and Monmouth (Monmouthshire, Wales). The population of the civil parish at the 2011 census was 1,053. The civil paris ...
,
Herefordshire
Herefordshire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England, bordered by Shropshire to the north, Worcestershire to the east, Gloucestershire to the south-east, and the Welsh ...
, to John Jones and his wife, Emily, daughter of Thomas Oakley JP, of
Monmouthshire
Monmouthshire ( ; ) is a Principal areas of Wales, county in the South East Wales, south east of Wales. It borders Powys to the north; the English counties of Herefordshire and Gloucestershire to the north and east; the Severn Estuary to the s ...
. She was the eldest of ten children. Constance was mostly tutored at home. She spent her early teenage years with her family in
Cape Town
Cape Town is the legislature, legislative capital city, capital of South Africa. It is the country's oldest city and the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. Cape Town is the country's List of municipalities in South Africa, second-largest ...
,
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...
, and when they returned to England in 1865 she attended a small school, Miss Robinson's, in
Cheltenham
Cheltenham () is a historic spa town and borough adjacent to the Cotswolds in Gloucestershire, England. Cheltenham became known as a health and holiday spa town resort following the discovery of mineral springs in 1716, and claims to be the mo ...
, for a year.
She was coached for the entrance examination for
Girton College, Cambridge
Girton College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was established in 1869 by Emily Davies and Barbara Bodichon as the first women's college at Cambridge. In 1948, it was granted full college status by the un ...
by Miss
Alice Grüner, a former student of
Newnham College
Newnham College is a women's constituent college of the University of Cambridge.
The college was founded in 1871 by a group organising Lectures for Ladies, members of which included philosopher Henry Sidgwick and suffragist campaigner Millicen ...
at her home in
Sydenham Sydenham may refer to:
Places Australia
* Sydenham, New South Wales, a suburb of Sydney
** Sydenham railway station, Sydney
* Sydenham, Victoria, a suburb of Melbourne
** Sydenham railway line, the name of the Sunbury railway line, Melbourne un ...
, Kent. She went up to Girton in 1875 where, prompted by having read
Henry Fawcett
Henry Fawcett (26 August 1833 – 6 November 1884) was a British academic, politician, statesman and economist.
Background and education
Henry Fawcett was born in Salisbury where his father was a gentleman farmer. He was educated at the A ...
's ''Political Economy'' (1863) and
Mill
Mill may refer to:
Science and technology
* Factory
* Mill (grinding)
* Milling (machining)
* Millwork
* Paper mill
* Steel mill, a factory for the manufacture of steel
* Sugarcane mill
* Textile mill
* List of types of mill
* Mill, the arithmetic ...
's ''
A System of Logic'' (1843), she chose the Moral Sciences
Tripos
TRIPOS (''TRIvial Portable Operating System'') is a computer operating system. Development started in 1976 at the Computer Laboratory of Cambridge University and it was headed by Dr. Martin Richards. The first version appeared in January 1978 a ...
. However, she almost immediately had to withdraw in order to look after the aunt with whom she then lived. Her undergraduate career was considerably interrupted because the education of her younger brothers took precedence over her own, but despite this in 1880 she was awarded a first class in the Moral Sciences Tripos.
She returned to Girton in 1884 as a research student and a resident lecturer in Moral Sciences. Having studied with
Henry Sidgwick
Henry Sidgwick (; 31 May 1838 – 28 August 1900) was an English Utilitarianism, utilitarian philosopher and economist and is best known in philosophy for his utilitarian treatise ''The Methods of Ethics''. His work in economics has also had a ...
,
James Ward and
J.N. Keynes, she completed the translation of
Lotze
Lotze is a surname. Notable people with the surname include:
* Hermann Lotze (1817–1881), German philosopher and logician
* Hiltrud Lotze (born 1958), German politician
See also
* Lotte (name)
Lotte is a female given name. It is a diminutive ...
's ''Mikrokosmus'' initiated by
Elizabeth Hamilton. She also edited Henry Sidgwick's ''
Methods of Ethics'' (1901) and his ''Ethics of
Green
Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by a com ...
,
Spencer, and
Martineau
Martineau is a surname. It is of French origin and may refer to:
* Alice Martineau (1972–2003), English pop singer and songwriter
* Alfred Albert Martineau (1859–1945), French Governor General
* Alfred Martineau (cricketer) (1868–1940), Engl ...
'' (1902); and wrote ''Elements of Logic'' (1890); ''A Primer of Logic'' (1905); ''A Primer of Ethics'' (1909); ''A New Law of Thought and its Logical Bearing'' (1911); ''Girton College'' (1913). She was Mistress of
Girton College, Cambridge
Girton College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was established in 1869 by Emily Davies and Barbara Bodichon as the first women's college at Cambridge. In 1948, it was granted full college status by the un ...
, from 1903 until her retirement in 1916.
Jones was one of the first women to join the
Aristotelian Society
The Aristotelian Society for the Systematic Study of Philosophy, more generally known as the Aristotelian Society, is a philosophical society in London.
History
Aristotelian Society was founded at a meeting on 19 April 1880, at 17 Bloomsbury Squar ...
in 1892, serving on the Society's executive committee from 1914 to 1916. She was also the first woman recorded as having delivered a paper to the
Cambridge University Moral Sciences Club
The Cambridge University Moral Sciences Club, founded in October 1878, is a philosophy discussion group that meets weekly at the University of Cambridge during term time. Speakers are invited to present a paper with a strict upper time limit of 4 ...
. She spoke about
James Ward's ''Naturalism and Agnosticism'' on 1 December 1899, with the philosopher Henry Sidgwick chairing the meeting. Her views were regarded as original and influenced her colleagues. She spent her career developing the idea that
categorical proposition
In logic, a categorical proposition, or categorical statement, is a proposition that asserts or denies that all or some of the members of one category (the ''subject term'') are included in another (the ''predicate term''). The study of arguments ...
s are composed of a
predicate
Predicate or predication may refer to:
* Predicate (grammar), in linguistics
* Predication (philosophy)
* several closely related uses in mathematics and formal logic:
**Predicate (mathematical logic)
**Propositional function
**Finitary relation, o ...
and a
subject
Subject ( "lying beneath") may refer to:
Philosophy
*''Hypokeimenon'', or ''subiectum'', in metaphysics, the "internal", non-objective being of a thing
**Subject (philosophy), a being that has subjective experiences, subjective consciousness, or ...
related via identity or non-identity.
Philosophy
Constance Jones' most significant contribution to philosophy was in logic and she was widely regarded to be an authority in this area by her contemporaries.
Her major work is ''A New Law of Thought and its Logical Bearings'' (Cambridge, 1911). She was chiefly concerned with the import and interpretation of
propositions
A proposition is a statement that can be either true or false. It is a central concept in the philosophy of language, semantics, logic, and related fields. Propositions are the object s denoted by declarative sentences; for example, "The sky ...
.
G.F. Stout says of her: "She did good service in insisting on the distinction between interpretation from the point of view of the speaker and that of the hearer". In her autobiography, Jones wrote of an early fascination with issues related to the nature and structure of content:
"This unsettled question—what is asserted when you make a statement, and what is the proper form of statement?—had deeply interested me from the time when I was a student and puzzled over Mill's and
Jevons' accounts of propositions."
Jones published several textbooks on logic and numerous articles on logic and ethics, particularly on Sidgwick's
ethical hedonism
Ethical hedonism is a branch of hedonism, the philosophical theory that identifies pleasure as the highest good and the proper aim of human life. While hedonism can take many forms, ethical hedonism specifically refers to the normative claim that ...
. However, despite her contribution to
analytic philosophy
Analytic philosophy is a broad movement within Western philosophy, especially English-speaking world, anglophone philosophy, focused on analysis as a philosophical method; clarity of prose; rigor in arguments; and making use of formal logic, mat ...
she has become largely forgotten.
References
Sources
*
External links
*
* PhilPapers
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jones, Constance
1848 births
1922 deaths
Alumni of Girton College, Cambridge
Cambridge University Moral Sciences Club
German–English translators
Mistresses of Girton College, Cambridge
English logicians
19th-century English philosophers
20th-century English philosophers
English women philosophers
20th-century English women writers
20th-century English writers
20th-century English translators
19th-century English women writers
19th-century English writers
19th-century English translators