From Library Journal
The term "agnostic" today hardly differs in meaning from "atheist." As Lightman demonstrates, this was far from the case as regards such eminent Victorian agnostics as T. H. Huxley, Herbert Spencer, W. K. Clifford, and Leslie Stephen. These writers did not reject the possibility of a realm unknown to science. Quite the contrary; they believed that there indeed existed something beyond nature. But, in Spencer's phrase, this was "the Unknowable," and religion erred in claiming to have direct knowledge of it. In so arguing, the agnostics were heavily influenced by Henry Mansel, who stressed, along Kantian lines, the limits to religious knowledge. Lightman's analysis of the agnostics is both sympathetic and penetrating. An important study.David Gordon, Social Philosophy & Policy Ctr., Bowling Green State Univ., Ohio
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.
