John Venn: Unpublished Writings and Selected Correspondence

The first book to present a carefully chosen and annotated selection of the unpublished writings and correspondence of the English logician John Venn (1834-1923). Venn was an important figure of nineteenth-century Cambridge, where he worked alongside leading thinkers on the development of the Moral Sciences Tripos. He published three influential textbooks on logic, contributed to the journal Mind, and counted F.W. Maitland, William Cunningham, and Arthur Balfour among his pupils. After his active career as a logician, Venn reinvented himself as a biographer of his University, College, and family.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 263 pages
Publication date: 27 November 2022
Publisher: Springer Nature Switzerland AG

This groundbreaking work is the first to present a meticulously curated and annotated collection of the unpublished writings and correspondence of the renowned English logician John Venn (1834-1923). While he is best known for inventing the iconic diagram that bears his name, Venn was a significant figure in nineteenth-century Cambridge, where he collaborated with esteemed thinkers like Henry Sidgwick and Alfred Marshall on the development of the Moral Sciences Tripos. Venn authored three influential textbooks on logic, contributed numerous articles to the newly established journal Mind, of which he became co-editor in 1892, and counted F.W. Maitland, William Cunningham, and Arthur Balfour among his students. Following his illustrious career as a logician, which concluded around the turn of the 20th century, Venn reinvented himself as a biographer of his University, College, and family. Together with his son, he undertook the monumental task of compiling the extensive Alumni Cantabrigienses, which remains a widely referenced standard reference source today.

The material presented herein, encompassing the 100-page Annals: Autobiographical Sketch, offers a wealth of fresh insights into Venn's philosophical evolution and the vibrant atmosphere of Cambridge during the 1850s and 1860s. It also sheds light on his close relationships with renowned colleagues and friends, including Leslie Stephen, Francis Galton, and William Stanley Jevons, thus placing him at the center of Victorian intellectual life.

Weight: 438g
Dimension: 235 x 155 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9783030798314
Edition number: 1st ed. 2022