(1806-1873) philosopher; utilitarian ethics; greatest good for the greatest number. Wrote
Examination of Sir William Hamilton's Philosophy. Ideas such as matter and causality are admitted if interpreted phenomenalistically, as, e.g., "possibilities of sensation." Knowledge of God is possible as an inference from knowledge of the world (from sense data). The uniformity of nature makes possible
knowledge of a world as cause of sense data. "Matter is the permanent possibility of sensation." Reality is not an independent mental or material substance but a
complex of actual and possible sensations. Material and mental entities are constructed from sense data. Sense data belong to a subjective mind (as in
idealism) and the objective world (as in realism). Realism is ordered by an invariable principle
of causality (
determinism).