Henry Calderwood

Who was Henry Calderwood?

Henry Calderwood FRSE was a Scottish minister and philosopher.

He was educated at the High School, and later at the University of Edinburgh. He studied for the ministry of the United Presbyterian Church of Scotland, and in 1856 was ordained pastor of the Greyfriars church, Glasgow. He also examined in mental philosophy for the University of Glasgow from 1861 to 1864, and from 1866 conducted the moral philosophy classes at that university, until in 1868 he became Professor of Moral Philosophy at Edinburgh. He was made LL.D. of Glasgow in 1865.

His first and most famous work was The Philosophy of the Infinite, in which he attacked the statement of Sir William Hamilton that we can have no knowledge of the Infinite. Calderwood maintained that such knowledge, though imperfect, is real and ever-increasing; that Faith implies Knowledge. His moral philosophy is in direct antagonism to Hegelian doctrine, and endeavours to substantiate the doctrine of divine sanction. Beside the data of experience, the mind has pure activity of its own whereby it apprehends the fundamental realities of life and combat.