William Molyneux

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
William Molyneux portrayed by Godfrey Kneller
Epitaph for William Molyneux in the Portlester Chapel of St. Audoen's Church in Dublin

William Molyneux (born April 17, 1656 in Dublin , † October 11, 1698 ibid) was an Irish natural philosopher and politician. The Molyneux problem raised by John Locke in 1688 will continue into the 21st century.

Life

William was the second of five children of Samuel (1616–1693) and Anne Dowdell. The father was a wealthy landowner, lawyer and political writer. The son from an Anglican family attended Trinity College in Dublin from April 10, 1671, and thus came into contact with the leading academic debates of his time. He obtained his bachelor's degree on February 27, 1674. He then studied law in London from 1675 to 1678 .

Thanks to his father's fortune, Molyneux was financially independent and from 1684 held various political functions. In 1685 he became a member of the Royal Society and from 1692 twice a member of the Irish Parliament .

William Molyneux married in Dublin on September 19, 1678, Lucy Domville (1660-1689), it was the youngest daughter of Sir William Domville, an attorney general for Ireland , attorney-general for Ireland . The couple had three children. Only one son, Samuel , who later became an astronomer and member of the British Parliament, reached adulthood .

He translated works by René Descartes during the winter period between 1679 and 1680, which he published under the title Six Metaphysical Meditations in the spring of 1680. Molyneux began an extensive correspondence with John Flamsteed and also explained, for example, in September 1681, how difficult it is to do scientific work in Ireland.

He is buried in St. Audoen's Church in Dublin. An epitaph there also commemorates him.

plant

In 1680, the natural philosopher published an introductory translation to the work of René Descartes and from 1682 he and Roderic O'Flaherty (1629–1716 / 18) participated in the Atlas project by Moses Pitt (approx. 1639–1697). Molyneux founded the Dublin Philosophical Society in 1683 , in which he was primarily committed to scientific topics, especially optics, and in the following years published several works on scientific and philosophical topics. In 1690 he wrote a letter to John Locke in response to the An Essay Concerning Human Understanding published in the same year , in which he raised the so-called Molyneux problem .

Political controversy sparked The Case of Ireland's being Bound by Acts of Parliament in England, Stated from 1698. The historical, legal and political issues in Ireland's relationship with Great Britain, such as laws of the English Parliament to the detriment of the Irish wool trade, were highly controversial. Molyneux campaigned for the autonomy of the Irish Parliament and took the position that Ireland was a kingdom on an equal footing with England. While Molyneux was frequently quoted by American patriots who had their own arguments with the British Crown, the House of Commons classified the work as a threat to British authority in Ireland.

Sciothericum telescopicum, or A new contrivance of adapting a telescope to an horizontal dial for observing the moment of time by day or night , 1686 

Works (selection)

  • Partial translation by Gottfried Leibniz: Unicum opticae catoptricae et dioptricae principium . In: Acta eruditorum , June 1682, pp. 185-190.
  • Main work: Dioptrica nova; A treatise of dioptricks in two parts , London 1692. Digital facsimile from the Linda Hall Library, Kansas City, Missouri.
  • The Case of Ireland being bound by Acts of Parliament in England, Stated (1698)

literature

  • K. Theodore Hoppen: The Royal Society and Ireland William Molyneux, FRS (1656-1698) in Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London, Volume 18. No. 2, December 1963 pp. 125-135.
  • JG Simms: William Molyneux of Dublin. A Life of the seventeenth-century Political Writer and Scientist. , Dublin, Irish Academic Press. 1982.

Web links

Commons : Category: William Molyneux  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files
Wikisource: William Molyneux  - Sources and full texts (English)

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Biography of William Molyneux. School of Mathematics and Statistics. University of St Andrews, Scotland. On-line
  2. ↑ James G. O'Hara: Molyneux, William (1656–1698) in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, September 2004
  3. ^ K. Theodore Hoppen: The Royal Society and Ireland. William Molyneux, FRS (1656-1698) . In: Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London . 18, 1963, pp. 125-135. doi : 10.1098 / rsnr.1963.0016 .
  4. ^ KT Hoppen: The Royal Society and Ireland William Molyneux, FRS (1656–1698). Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London 18 (2) (1963), 125-135.
  5. ^ Galileo project
  6. ^ The Cambridge History of Eighteenth-Century Political Thought , Volume 1, Biographien, 2006, p. 760.
personal data
SURNAME Molyneux, William
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Irish philosopher and politician
DATE OF BIRTH April 17, 1656
PLACE OF BIRTH Dublin , Ireland
DATE OF DEATH October 11, 1698
Place of death Dublin , Ireland