1787 – 1863
Richard Whately (1787–1863) was an English logician, rhetorician, and Anglican Archbishop of Dublin who played a central role in reviving formal logic in nineteenth-century Britain. His Elements of Logic (1826) reintroduced Aristotelian syllogistic to English-speaking audiences and shaped the teaching of logic for decades. He also made notable contributions to rhetoric, political economy, and the epistemology of testimony and probabilistic reasoning.
Authored Elements of Logic (1826), reviving systematic formal logic in British intellectual life
Authored Elements of Rhetoric (1828), a foundational text in the theory of argumentation
Published Historic Doubts Relative to Napoleon Buonaparte (1819), satirizing radical historical skepticism
Served as Archbishop of Dublin (1831–1863), influencing Irish educational reform
Contributed to the epistemology of testimony and probabilistic evidence in theological and philosophical contexts