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James Martineau, 1805-1900.

James Martineau
 

The English Unitarian theologian and philosopher, who's inclusion on this site is due to his popularization of hedonic philosophy and his coincidental relationships with multiple economists.

Born into a Norwich textile manufacturing family of Huguenot descent, James Martineau was the younger brother of the economist Harriet Martineau (they were the sixth and seventh of a large brood.)  Non-conformist (Unitarian) by faith, James was given a thorough, if brief, education, rounded off by two years at the dissenting Bristol school established by the Unitarian minister Lant Carpenter.  Exhibiting an early penchant for mathematics, at his father's request, Martineau ended his studies and was apprenticed to a civil engineer in Derby for a year.  But the lure of faith and theology kept dogging him, prompting him to abandon his scientific vocation and pursue a calling as a Unitarian minister. To this end, in 1822, Martineau enrolled in Manchester New College, a  non-conformist academy, then at York.  This turned out to be a strenuous expense, coinciding with an extremely difficult period in his family's fortunes.

After completing his studies in 1827, Martineau spent a year filling in for his sickly old teacher Carpenter at the Bristol School, and was invited to take over the job.  But Martineau was eager for pastoral work.  He finally found a vacancy in Ireland, and, in 1828, Martineau was ordained and took up duties at the Eustace Street Presbyterian Church in Dublin.  In 1832, entering a quarrel over regium domum, Martineau resigned from Dublin, and moved to Liverpool.  In 1836, Martineau published his Rationale of Religious Enquiry, raising reason as the ultimate arbiter of religious truth, and setting him on the road to his future explorations on the relationship between religion and human conscience.  The book making him a minor public celebrity.

James Martineau was appointed the first Professor of Mental and Moral Philosophy and Political Economy at Manchester New College (MNC) in 1840.  In 1853, MNC moved to London. A semi-formal deal was eventually struck with her old rival, University College London (UCL), whereby MNC would concentrate on theology and related topics, while UCL would take care of the secular courses.  Unwilling to leave his Liverpool home and pulpit, Martineau spent four years commuting the distance, until finally moving to London in 1857.  His course of lectures included Ethics, Philosophy of Religion and, a weaker spot, Logic (assigning Hamilton, Mill, Bain and Aristotle).

In 1858, Edward Taggart, the Unitarian minister of Little Portland Street Chapel, died.  Martineau was appointed jointly with jointly with John James Taylor, the principal of MNC, to succeed Taggart in the pulpit.  When Taylor died in 1869, Martineau succeeded him both as principal of MNC and sole minister at the chapel.

Philip H. Wicksteed was among Martineau's first students in London and his successor at the Little Portland Street Chapel.  W. Stanley Jevons attended Martineau's course at MNC in late 1860, later proving instrumental in familiarizing Jevons with utilitarian philosophy.

 

  


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Major Works of James Martineau

  • The Rationale of Religious Enquiry, or, the question stated of Reason, the Bible, and the Church, 1836 [1836 ed; 1845 ed, 1853 ed]
  • "The Bible, what it is and what it is not", 1839, in Utilitarianism defended [Lec II]
  • Endeavours after the Christian Life, 1843 [bk] [1847 ed., v.1; 1888 ed]
  • Miscellanies, 1852 [bk, av]
  • Owe no Man Anything: a discourse on commercial morals, preached in Hope Street Chapel, Liverpool, 1857 [pub. as "Commercial Morals", 1857, Hunt's Merchants' Magazine & Commercial Review,  v.37 (Nov), p.534] [repr 1891 Essays, v.4, p.495]
  • Address at the Opening of Session of 1860, 1860 [bk]
  • "John Stuart Mill", 1860, National Review
  • Essays, philosophical and theological, 1866-68, v.1, v.2 [1874 repr., v.1, v.2]
  • "Is there any 'Axiom of Causality'?", 1870, Contemporary Review p.636
  • Religion as affected by modern materialism, opening of session of 1874, 1874 [bk] [1877 ed]
  • Studies of Christianity: A series of papers, 1875 [bk]
  • Ideal substitutes for God: opening of session of 1878-79, 1878 [bk]
  • The Relation Between Ethics and Religion:  address at the opening of the session of 1881-82, 1881 [bk]
  • A Study of Spinoza, 1882 [bk, av] [1883 2nd ed] [1895 3rd ed]
  • Types of Ethical Theory, 1885 v.1, v.2 [1886 2nd ed v.1, v.2] [1889 3rd ed v.1, v.2]
  • A Study of Religion, 1888
  • The Law of Duty, 1889
  • The Seat of Authority in Religion, 1890 [bk]
  • Essays, Reviews, and Addresses, 1890-91, v.1, v.2, v.3 v.4
  • National Duties, and other sermons and addresses, 1903 [bk]

 


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Resources on James Martineau

 

 
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