Of the plurality of worlds : an essay
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Of the plurality of worlds : an essay
（Cambridge library collection, . Religion）
Cambridge University Press, 2009
- : pbk
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Note
"This digitally printed version 2009"--T.p. verso
Facsim. of ed. published: London : J.W. Parker and son, 1853
Includes bibliographical references
Description and Table of Contents
Description
This controversial essay, first published in 1853, addresses the question of the existence of intelligent life on other planets. It was first published anonymously, owing to the ferocity of the ongoing debates between the religious and scientific scholarly communities. Its author, William Whewell (1794-1866) was a leading intellectual of the Victorian period, and a notable polymath. A contemporary and adviser of Herschel, Darwin and Faraday, he wrote extensively on subjects ranging from astronomy and mineralogy to moral philosophy, educational reform and architecture, and engaged with John Stuart Mill in a lively debate about inductive reasoning. In Of The Plurality of Worlds, Whewell denied the probability of life elsewhere in the universe, afraid that the concept of extraterrestrial life would encourage the theory of evolution and put at risk mankind's connection to God.
Table of Contents
- 1. Astronomical discoveries
- 2. Astronomical objection to religion
- 3. The answer from the microscope
- 4. Further statement of the difficulty
- 5. Geology
- 6. The argument from geology
- 7. The nebulae
- 8. The fixed stars
- 9. The planets
- 10. Theory of the solar system
- 11. The argument from design
- 12. The unity of the world
- 13. The future.
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