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William Ernest Johnson
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William Ernest Johnson
William Ernest Johnson (23 June 1858 – 14 January 1931), usually cited as W. E. Johnson, was a British philosopher, logician and economic theorist. He is mainly remembered for his 3 volume Logic which introduced the concept of exchangeability.
Johnson was born in Cambridge on 23 June 1858 to William Henry Farthing Johnson and his wife, Harriet (née Brimley), half-sister of the essayist George Brimley. He was their fifth child. The family were Baptists and political liberals.
He attended the Llandaff House School, Cambridge where his father was the proprietor and headteacher, then the Perse School, Cambridge, and the Liverpool Royal Institution School. At the age of around eight he became seriously ill and developed severe asthma and lifelong ill health. Due to this his education was frequently disrupted.
In 1879 he entered King's College, Cambridge to read mathematics having won a scholarship and was placed 11th Wrangler in 1882. He stayed on to study for the Moral Sciences Tripos from which he graduated in 1883 with a First Class degree. He was also a Cambridge Apostle.
In 1895 he married Barbara Keymer. After her sudden death in 1904 his sister Fanny moved in with him to care for his two sons.
Having failed to win a prize fellowship, he taught mathematics. His first teaching post was as a lecturer in Psychology and Education at the Cambridge Women's Training College, which he held for several years. He was a University Teacher of Theory of Education 1893–1898 and, from 1896 until 1901, University Lecturer in Moral Sciences at the University of Cambridge. In 1902 he was elected a Fellow of King's College, and appointed to the newly created Sidgwick Lectureship, positions he held until his death. In 1923 he was elected a Fellow of the British Academy.
Johnson's students included I. A. Richards, Dorothy Wrinch, C. D. Broad, R. B. Braithwaite and Susan Stebbing. Frank Ramsey is sometimes described as one of his students. However, as John Aldrich notes, Johnson lectured to, and supervised, moral science students and had no official duties toward students of mathematics and there is no evidence Ramsey attended his lectures. Ramsey though, as Sahlin notes, "knew the work of Johnson extremely well". He would review the second part of Johnson's Logic in 1922 and referred to Johnson multiple times in his 1925 paper on 'Universals'.
In 1912 (at Bertrand Russell's request) Johnson attempted to 'coach' Ludwig Wittgenstein in logic but this was an arrangement that was both brief and unsuccessful. They had strong disagreements on logic and philosophy, but got on well when they did not speak about these things. Wittgenstein anonymously committed 200 pounds a year to a research fund for Johnson. He was also kind to Johnson during his ill-health.
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William Ernest Johnson
William Ernest Johnson (23 June 1858 – 14 January 1931), usually cited as W. E. Johnson, was a British philosopher, logician and economic theorist. He is mainly remembered for his 3 volume Logic which introduced the concept of exchangeability.
Johnson was born in Cambridge on 23 June 1858 to William Henry Farthing Johnson and his wife, Harriet (née Brimley), half-sister of the essayist George Brimley. He was their fifth child. The family were Baptists and political liberals.
He attended the Llandaff House School, Cambridge where his father was the proprietor and headteacher, then the Perse School, Cambridge, and the Liverpool Royal Institution School. At the age of around eight he became seriously ill and developed severe asthma and lifelong ill health. Due to this his education was frequently disrupted.
In 1879 he entered King's College, Cambridge to read mathematics having won a scholarship and was placed 11th Wrangler in 1882. He stayed on to study for the Moral Sciences Tripos from which he graduated in 1883 with a First Class degree. He was also a Cambridge Apostle.
In 1895 he married Barbara Keymer. After her sudden death in 1904 his sister Fanny moved in with him to care for his two sons.
Having failed to win a prize fellowship, he taught mathematics. His first teaching post was as a lecturer in Psychology and Education at the Cambridge Women's Training College, which he held for several years. He was a University Teacher of Theory of Education 1893–1898 and, from 1896 until 1901, University Lecturer in Moral Sciences at the University of Cambridge. In 1902 he was elected a Fellow of King's College, and appointed to the newly created Sidgwick Lectureship, positions he held until his death. In 1923 he was elected a Fellow of the British Academy.
Johnson's students included I. A. Richards, Dorothy Wrinch, C. D. Broad, R. B. Braithwaite and Susan Stebbing. Frank Ramsey is sometimes described as one of his students. However, as John Aldrich notes, Johnson lectured to, and supervised, moral science students and had no official duties toward students of mathematics and there is no evidence Ramsey attended his lectures. Ramsey though, as Sahlin notes, "knew the work of Johnson extremely well". He would review the second part of Johnson's Logic in 1922 and referred to Johnson multiple times in his 1925 paper on 'Universals'.
In 1912 (at Bertrand Russell's request) Johnson attempted to 'coach' Ludwig Wittgenstein in logic but this was an arrangement that was both brief and unsuccessful. They had strong disagreements on logic and philosophy, but got on well when they did not speak about these things. Wittgenstein anonymously committed 200 pounds a year to a research fund for Johnson. He was also kind to Johnson during his ill-health.
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