The New Student's Reference Work/Lewes, George Henry

Lewes (lū′ĭs), George Henry, an English philosophical writer, was born at London in 1817. His first important work was his Biographical History of Philosophy (1845) subsequently much extended and altered — a work written from a positivist point of view and sufficiently proving his ability as a thinker and writer. From 1849 to 1854 he was literary editor of the Leader, during that time publishing his Life of Robespierre and a compend of Comte's Philosophy of the Sciences. His Life of Goethe, which won him a European reputation, was published in 1855. From 1854 he was largely engaged in physiological investigations, with special reference to philosophical problems. To this period belong his Seaside Studies, Physiology of Common Life and Studies in Animal Life, besides papers contributed to the British Association on the spinal cord and on the nervous system. In 1864 he published A Study on Aristotle, and in 1865 founded the Fortnightly Review, but was compelled by ill-health to retire a year later. The chief work of his life, aiming at the systematic development of his philosophical views, is entitled Problems of Life and Mind. His relations with the novelist, “George Eliot,” will be known to readers. He died in 1878.