William Ernest Johnson
William Ernest Johnson, FBA (23 June 1858 – 14 January 1931), usually cited as W. E. Johnson, was a British philosopher, logician and economic theorist.[2] He is mainly remembered for his 3 volume Logic which introduced the concept of exchangeability.[3][4]
For other people named William Johnson, see William Johnson (disambiguation).
W. E. Johnson
14 January 1931 (aged 72)
Philosopher, logician and economist
Barbara Keymer Heaton
Life and career[edit]
Johnson was born in Cambridge on 23 June 1858 to William Henry Farthing Johnson and his wife, Harriet (née Brimley).[5] He was their fifth child.[5] The family were Baptists and political liberals.[6]
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.[5] 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.[6]
In 1879 he entered King's College, Cambridge to read mathematics having won a scholarship and was placed 11th Wrangler in 1882.[7] He stayed on to study for the Moral Sciences Tripos from which he graduated in 1883 with a First Class degree.[7] He was also a Cambridge Apostle.[8]
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.[5]
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.[6] He was a University Teacher of Theory of Education 1893-98 and, from 1896 until 1901, University Lecturer in Moral Sciences at the University of Cambridge.[6][7] In 1902 he was elected a Fellow of King's College, and appointed to the (newly-created) Sidgwick Lecturership, positions he held until his death.[7][5] In 1923 he was elected a Fellow of the British Academy.[7][5]
Johnson's students included I. A. Richards,[9] John Maynard Keynes, Frank Ramsey, Dorothy Wrinch,[4] C. D. Broad,[2] R. B. Braithwaite[6] and Susan Stebbing.[10] In 1912 (at Bertrand Russell's request) Johnson also attempted to 'coach' Ludwig Wittgenstein in logic but this was an arrangement that was both brief and unsuccessful.[11]
He died in St Andrew's Hospital, Northampton, on 14 January 1931 and is buried at Grantchester, Cambridgeshire.[5]