The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Bowen, Francis

BOWEN, Francis, American educator and author: b. Charlestown, Mass., 8 Sept. 1811; d. Cambridge, Mass., 21 Jan. 1890. He was graduated from Harvard in 1833, and for a time taught mathematics in Phillips-Exeter Academy. He became instructor in natural philosophy and political economy at Harvard, 1835; studied in Europe, 1839—41, meeting Sismondi and De Gerando. Returning to Cambridge in 1843 he took charge of the North American Review, as editor and proprietor, and conducted it with great ability for nearly 11 years. On account of his having taken the unpopular side in the Review on the Hungarian question, the overseers of Harvard refused to concur with the corporation in appointing him professor of history in 1850. When Dr. Walker became president of Harvard in 1853, Professor Bowen was elected Alford professor of natural religion, moral philosophy and civil polity, and held that chair until 1888, when he became professor emeritus. He opposed the doctrines of Darwin and accepted those of Sir William Hamilton, and in philosophy upheld the views of Locke and Berkeley against those of Cousin, Comte, Fichte, Kant and Mill. He was a clear, forceful, independent thinker, and possessed a style notable for its energy and precision. As a writer he was most industrious, treating with success widely varying topics. The following is a selected list of his publications: ‘Documents of the Constitutions of England and America, from Magna Charta to the Federal Constitution of 1789’ (1854); ‘The Principles of Metaphysical and Ethical Science applied to the Evidences of Religion’ (1855); ‘Dugald Stewart's Philosophy of the Human Mind, with Critical Notes’ (1854); ‘Principles of Political Economy’ (1856); ‘The Metaphysics of Sir William Hamilton’ (1862); ‘De Tocqueville's Democracy in America, edited with notes’ (1862); ‘Logic, or the Laws of Pure Thought’ (1864); ‘American Political Economy’ (1870).