John Cook Wilson

Who was John Cook Wilson?

John Cook Wilson was an English philosopher. The only son of a Methodist minister, after Derby Grammar School, 1862-7, he went up to Balliol College, Oxford in 1868, where he read both Classics and Mathematics, gaining a 1st in Mathematical Moderations, 1869, 1st in Classical Moderations, 1870, 1st in Mathematics finals, 1871, and a 1st in Literae Humaniores in 1872. He was, along with H. A. Prichard, one of Oxford's few early twentieth-century philosophers, to have a mathematical background. Wilson became a Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford in 1874. He was Wykeham Professor of Logic and a Fellow of New College, Oxford, from 1889 until his death. H. A. Prichard and W.D. Ross were among his students.

Mathematics, he said, is the best preparation for logic Statement and Inference, I : xxxviii. There is an amusing story of how he introduced calculus in a lecture to classically trained undergraduates. At the end of the lecture 'he walked smartly to the door, locked, or pretended to lock, it, and then standing there with his back to it said with decision : 'No one shall leave this room until you all grasp the essentials of this simple matter': Statement and Inference, I : xv.