Thomas Whittaker (metaphysician)

Thomas Whittaker
Born	(1856-09-25)25 September 1856
Died	3 October 1935(1935-10-03) (aged 79)
Education	Dublin Royal College of Science Exeter College, Oxford
Occupation(s)	Metaphysician, critic

Thomas Whittaker (25 September 1856 – 3 October 1935) was an English metaphysician and critic.

Biography

Whittaker was educated at Dublin Royal College of Science and Exeter College, Oxford. He was an editor of the journal Mind (1885-1891).^[1] He won a Natural Science scholarship at Exeter College. From 1910 he was director of the Rationalist Press Association.^[2]

Whittaker was an advocate of the Christ myth theory.^[3][4] He was influenced by the writings of Willem Christiaan van Manen and J. M. Robertson.^[5]

Works

• The Philosophy of History (1893)
• The Neoplatonists: A Study in the History of Hellenism (1901), third impression 1928
• Origins of Christianity (1904), fourth edition 1933
• Apollonius of Tyana and Other Essays (1906)
• The Liberal State (1907)
• Priests, Philosophers, and Prophets (1911)
• The Theory of Abstract Ethics (1916)
• The Metaphysics of Evolution (1926)
• His Prolegomena to a New Metaphysic (1931)
• Reason (1934)

He wrote several lives for the Dictionary of National Biography, signing as T. W-r.

• Thomas Bedwell
• William Bewley
• John Bonnycastle
• Henry Briggs (1561–1630)

References

1. Gould, Frederick James. (1929). The Pioneers of Johnson's Court: A History of the Rationalist Press Association From 1899 Onwards. Watts. p. 54
2. Anonymous. (1935). Obituary: Mr. Thomas Whittaker. Metaphysician and Critic. The Times. October 4. p. 16
3. McCabe, Joseph. (1950). A Rationalist Encyclopaedia: A Book of Reference on Religion, Philosophy, Ethics, and Science. Watts. p. 334. "In England the philosophic writer T. Whittaker, and L. G. Rylands, supported Robertson in denying the historicity of Jesus."
4. Hawton, Hector. (1971). Controversy: The Humanist/Christian Encounter. Pemberton Books. p. 173. ISBN 978-0301710211
5. Johnston, G. A. (1916). Reviewed Work: The Origins of Christianity, with an Outline of Van Manen's Analysis of the Pauline Literature by Van Manen, Thomas Whittaker. International Journal of Ethics 26 (3): 428-429.

Further reading

• “Whittaker, Thomas,” in Alumni Oxonienses: the Members of the University of Oxford, 1715-1886 by Foster, Joseph, Oxford: Parker and Co., 1888–1892.
• The Times, 1935, Obituary: Thomas Whittaker. Metaphysician and critic

External links

• Works by Thomas Whittaker at Project Gutenberg
• Works by or about Thomas Whittaker at the Internet Archive
• Works by Thomas Whittaker at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)