HUXLEY, THOMAS HENRY. - Naturalist and philosopher, b. 4 May 1825 at Ealing, d. 29 June 1895 at Eastbourne. He did not receive a regular education, but at an early age read Hamilton’s logic and the works of Carlyle; he studied medicine. As a naturalist he initially followed Owen and Oken; later, after Darwin had published On the origin of species (1859), he adhered, with reservations, to his system and did not accept the doctrine of evolution of Spencer, whom he knew personally. He regarded embryology and palaeontology as the foundations of organic evolution, but maintained the need to adhere strictly to experience.
H. adheres to positivism and agnosticism: indeed, it seems that the term agnosticism was introduced by him. Knowledge is limited to the facts of our experience; consciousness is merely an epiphenomenon (v.) of physiological facts, «automate conscient». But if everything is to be interpreted in terms of matter and force, these are given only as objective contents of consciousness. H. does not resolve the contradiction of a consciousness that is only an effect and of matter that is only a symbol. In the same way, while he would wish for a living faith in the order of nature, he proclaims the antagonism between the cosmic order and the moral order.
Principal works: Man's place in nature (1864); Hume (1879); Science and culture (1882); Evolution and ethics (1893).