Generations of Reason : A Family's Search for Meaning in Post-Newtonian England

Generations of Reason recounts the story of three Cambridge-educated Englishmen and the women with whom they chose to share their commitment to reason in all parts of their lives. In the first generation, Theophilus and Hannah Lindsey founded the Unitarian Church in 1774. In the second, William Frend, with the support of his wife Sarah, lived a complicated life as a radical political thinker and writer through the Napoleonic era. In the third, Augustus De Morgan pursued mathematics and logic while his wife Sophia explored the world of spiritualism in early Victorian England. These couples were members of a non-traditional family formed when a man married the daughter or niece of the mentor, who had taught him the ways of reason. This dynamic supported a commitment to reason that profoundly shaped the lives of three generations of men, women and children. The reason this family embraced was an essentially human power with the potential to generate true insight into all aspects of the world. Recognizing the role reason played in their lives casts new light on key developments in English cultural and political history, from the religious conformism of the eighteenth century through the upheavals of the Napoleonic era into the industrial prosperity of the Victorian age. At the same time, it restores the rich world of the essentially meditative, rational sciences of theology, astronomy, mathematics, and logic to their proper place in the English intellectual landscape. An intimate, accessible history of British intellectual development across the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, through the story of one family

This book recounts the story of three Cambridge-educated Englishmen and the women with whom they chose to share their commitment to reason in all parts of their lives. The reason this family embraced was an essentially human power with the potential to generate true insight into all aspects of the world. In exploring the ways reason permeated three generations of English experience, this book casts new light on key developments in English cultural and political history, from the religious conformism of the eighteenth century through the Napoleonic era into the Industrial Revolution and prosperity of the Victorian age. At the same time, it restores the rich world of the essentially meditative, rational sciences of theology, astronomy, mathematics, and logic to their proper place in the English intellectual landscape. Following the development of their views over the course of an eventful one hundred years of English history illuminates the fine structure of ways reason still operates in our world. "This book recounts the story of three Cambridge-educated Englishmen and the women with whom they chose to share their commitment to reason in all parts of their lives. The reason this family embraced was an essentially human power with the potential to generate true insight into all aspects of the world. In exploring the ways reason permeated three generations of English experience, this book casts new light on key developments in English cultural and political history, from the religious conformism of the eighteenth century through the Napoleonic era into the Industrial Revolution and prosperity of the Victorian age. At the same time, it restores the rich world of the essentially meditative, rational sciences of theology, astronomy, mathematics, and logic to their proper place in the English intellectual landscape. Following the development of their views over the course of an eventful one hundred years of English history illuminates the fine structure of ways reason still operates in our world."--Publisher description This text recounts the story of three Cambridge-educated Englishmen and the women with whom they chose to share their commitment to reason in all parts of their lives. The reason this family embraced was an essentially human power with the potential to generate true insight into all aspects of the world. In exploring the ways reason permeated three generations of English experience, this book casts new light on key developments in English cultural and political history, from the religious conformism of the eighteenth century through the Napoleonic era into the Industrial Revolution and prosperity of the Victorian age