# Carveth Read

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{{Short description|British philosopher and logician (1848–1931)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
'''Carveth Read''' (1848–1931) was a 19th- and 20th-century [British](/source/United_Kingdom) philosopher and logician.

==Life==
He was born 16 March 1848 in Falmouth, Cornwall, England.<ref>Nature 128, 1067–1067 (26 December 1931) – doi:10.1038/1281067a0</ref> He was the third son of Edward Read and Elizabeth Truscott.<ref>''Cambridge Alumni Database'' (''CAD''), University of Cambridge (http://venn.lib.cam.ac.uk/ {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110817184313/http://venn.lib.cam.ac.uk/ |date=17 August 2011 }})</ref>  He attended the [University of Cambridge](/source/University_of_Cambridge) (Christ's College).<ref>C. Spearman. The Life Work of Carveth Read, 1848-1931, British Journal of Psychology, v. 23, no. 1 (July 1932), pp. 1–4.</ref> He received a B.A. (Moral Sciences Tripos, 1st) in 1873 and an M.A. in 1877.  He was the Hilbert travelling scholar, studying at Leipzig and Heidelberg Universities in 1874-1877.  In 1877 he married Evelyn Thompson.<ref>''CAD''.</ref>  From 1878 he lectured at Wren's 'Coaching' establishment (located at 7 Powis Square, Westbourne Park, London).<ref>Warwick, Andrew.  ''Masters of Theory: Cambridge and the Rise of Mathematical Physics'', Chicago: University of Chicago Press (2003), p. 93.</ref> He was [Grote professor of philosophy of mind and logic](/source/Grote_Chair_of_the_Philosophy_of_Mind_and_Logic)<ref>Spearman (July 1932).</ref> at the [University College London](/source/University_College_London) (UCL) from 1903 to 1911.  From 1911 to 1921 he was Lecturer in [Comparative Psychology](/source/Comparative_psychology) at UCL.<ref>Spearman (July 1932).</ref> He died 6 December 1931 in Solihull, Warwickshire, England.<ref>Nature 128, 1067–1067.</ref>

==Work==
In the preface to the fourth edition of his book ''Logic: Deductive and Inductive'' (1920), he identifies his significant influences.  He states, "the work may be considered, on the whole, as attached to the school of Mill; to whose System of Logic, and to Bain's Logic, it is deeply indebted. Amongst the works of living writers, the Empirical Logic of Venn and the Formal Logic of Keynes have given me most assistance."<ref>C. Read, "Logic: Deductive and Inductive," London: Simkin, Marshall (1920), p. vi.</ref>  

In Chapter 22 of ''Logic'' (p 352), Read says: "Even in reasoning upon some subjects, it is a mistake to aim at an unattainable precision. It is better to be vaguely right than exactly wrong.", the original source of the much quoted aphorism "It is better to be roughly right than exactly wrong" that is often incorrectly attributed to [John Maynard Keynes](/source/John_Maynard_Keynes).

Carveth Read also wrote about [human evolution](/source/human_evolution). He was an early proponent of the [hunting hypothesis](/source/hunting_hypothesis) — the idea that human intelligence evolved thanks to the emergence of an ape lineage that did more hunting than other apes.<ref>{{cite book
 | last = Spencer
 | first = Frank
 | title = History of Physical Anthropology
 | publisher = Taylor & Francis
 | volume = 2
 | date = 1997
 | page = 509
 | isbn = 0815304900 }}</ref>

==Bibliography==
* ''On the Theory of Logic: An Essay'' (1878)
* ''Logic: Deductive and Inductive'' (1898 – first edition)
* ''The Metaphysics of Nature'' (1905 - first edition)
* ''Natural and Social Morals'' (1909)
* ''The Origin of Man and of His Superstitions'' (1920)

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* {{Gutenberg author |id=8030| name=Carveth Read}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Carveth Read}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Read, Carveth}}
Category:1848 births
Category:1931 deaths
Category:19th-century British philosophers
Category:20th-century British philosophers
Category:British logicians
Category:Academics of University College London
category:writers from Cornwall
category:People from Falmouth, Cornwall

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