An Examination of Sir William Hamilton's Philosophy

With excellent provenance for the physician-in-ordinary to Queen Victoria, Edward VII, and George V. An interesting association copy of John Stuart Mill's devastating critique of Sir William Hamilton's Lectures on Metaphysics and Logic, containing his most pronounced statement on Christian ethics.

Mill took issue with Hamilton's doctrine of the 'relativity of human knowledge', not because this suggested that certain knowledge was inaccessible to the human senses, but because Hamilton took this inaccessibility to be proof of the existence of God, rather than as grounds for rational scepticism, leading Mill to his famous statement that: 'I will call no being good, who is not what I mean when I apply that epithet to my fellow-creatures; and if such a being can sentence me to hell for not so calling him, to hell I will go' (p.103)

With excellent provenance for Sir James Reid (1849-1923) physician-in-ordinary to Queen Victoria, Edward VII, and George V. Awarded for attaining 6th place in logic at the University of Aberdeen by the Professor of Logic and Moral Philosophy Alexander Bain (1818-1903), himself a lifelong friend of the author John Stuart Mill, helping him to edit his father James Mill's Analysis of the Phenomena of the Human Mind, and revise the manuscript of his System of Logic.

Second edition; 8vo (22 x 15 cm); bookplate to front pastedown, inserted presentation leaf; presentation tan calf for the University of Aberdeen, arms in gilt to upper panel, gilt spine in 6 compartments, contrasting blue morocco title-piece, marbled edges, spine slightly faded, minor wear to extremities, endpapers a little spotted, otherwise internally clean, very good; viii, 561, [1]pp.