HAMILTON, SIR WILLIAM, a dis tinguished Scotch metaphysician; born in Glasgow, Scotland, March 8, 1788. His father and grandfather held in suc cession the chairs of anatomy and botany in Glasgow University. Having studied with distinction at Glasgow, in 1809, he entered Baliol College, Oxford, where he gained first-class honors. In 1813 he was admitted to the Scottish bar, but never acquired a practice in his profes sion, his taste lying much more toward the study of philosophy. In 1820 he be came a candidate for the chair of moral philosophy in Edinburgh, but, being de feated by Prof. John Wilson, he took the chair of universal history. In 1829 the publication in the "Edinburgh Review" of his celebrated critique of Cousin's system of philosophy gave him at once a first place among the philosophical writers of the time. This was followed in 1830 by his criticism of Brown, and in 1831 by his article on the authorship of "Letters of Obscure Men."
In 1836 he was appointed to the chair of logic and metaphysics in Edinburgh Uni versity. In 1846 he published an anno tated edition of the works of Thomas Reid, and in 1854 the first volume of a similar edition of the works of Dugald Stewart. His lectures on logic and meta physics were collected and edited by Dean Manse] and Professor Veitch. Hamilton's most important contributions to philosophy are connected with his doc trine of the Quantification of the Predi cate in his system of logic; his theory of the "relativity of knowledge," in the Kantian sense, held along with an ap parently incompatible doctrine of imme diate perception of the non-ego; and his definition of the infinite or unconditioned as a mere negation of thought. He died in Edinburgh, Scotland, May 6, 1856.