Thomas Whittaker (metaphysician) explained

Thomas Whittaker
Birth Date:	25 September 1856
Education:	Dublin Royal College of Science Exeter College, Oxford
Occupation:	Metaphysician, critic

Thomas Whittaker (25 September 1856 – 3 October 1935) was an English metaphysician and critic.

Biography

Whittaker was educated at Dublin Royal College of Science and Exeter College, Oxford. He was an editor of the journal Mind (1885-1891).^[1] He won a Natural Science scholarship at Exeter College. From 1910 he was director of the Rationalist Press Association.^[2]

Whittaker was an advocate of the Christ myth theory.^{[3] [4]} He was influenced by the writings of Willem Christiaan van Manen and J. M. Robertson.^[5]

Works

• The Philosophy of History (1893)
• The Neoplatonists: A Study in the History of Hellenism (1901), third impression 1928
• Origins of Christianity (1904), fourth edition 1933
• Apollonius of Tyana and Other Essays (1906)
• The Liberal State (1907)
• Priests, Philosophers, and Prophets (1911)
• The Theory of Abstract Ethics (1916)
• The Metaphysics of Evolution (1926)
• His Prolegomena to a New Metaphysic (1931)
• Reason (1934)

He wrote several lives for the Dictionary of National Biography, signing as T. W-r.

• Thomas Bedwell
• William Bewley
• John Bonnycastle
• Henry Briggs (1561–1630)

Further reading

• “Whittaker, Thomas,” in Alumni Oxonienses: the Members of the University of Oxford, 1715-1886 by Foster, Joseph, Oxford: Parker and Co., 1888–1892.
• The Times, 1935, Obituary: Thomas Whittaker. Metaphysician and critic

Notes and References

1. [Frederick James Gould|Gould, Frederick James]
2. Anonymous. (1935). Obituary: Mr. Thomas Whittaker. Metaphysician and Critic. The Times. October 4. p. 16
3. [Joseph McCabe|McCabe, Joseph]
4. Hawton, Hector. (1971). Controversy: The Humanist/Christian Encounter. Pemberton Books. p. 173.
5. Johnston, G. A. (1916). Reviewed Work: The Origins of Christianity, with an Outline of Van Manen's Analysis of the Pauline Literature by Van Manen, Thomas Whittaker. International Journal of Ethics 26 (3): 428-429.