Herbert Butterfield
| Herbert Butterfield | |
|---|---|
| Born | 7 October 1900 Oxenhope, Yorkshire |
| Died | 20 July 1979 Sawston, Cambridgeshire |
| Alma mater | Peterhouse, Cambridge |
| Notable work |
The Whig Interpretation of History (1931) Origins of Modern Science (1949) |
| Era | 20th-century philosophy |
| Region | Western Philosophy |
| School | British historiography |
| Institutions | Peterhouse, Cambridge |
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Main interests
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History of science |
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Notable ideas
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Whig history |
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Influences
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Influenced
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Sir Herbert Butterfield (7 October 1900 – 20 July 1979) was Regius Professor of History and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge. As a British historian and philosopher of history, he is remembered chiefly for two books, a short volume early in his career entitled The Whig Interpretation of History (1931) and his Origins of Modern Science (1949). Over the course of his career, Butterfield turned increasingly to historiography and man's developing view of the past. Butterfield was a devout Christian and reflected at length on Christian influences in historical perspectives.
Butterfield thought that individual personalities were more important than great systems of government or economics in historical study. His Christian beliefs in personal sin, salvation, and providence heavily influenced his writings, a fact he freely admitted. At the same time, Butterfield's early works emphasized the limits of a historian's moral conclusions: "If history can do anything it is to remind us that all our judgments are merely relative to time and circumstance."
Butterfield was born in Oxenhope in Yorkshire and was raised a devout Methodist, which he remained for life. Despite a low-class upbringing, receiving his education at the Trade and Grammar School in Keighley, in 1919, he won a scholarship to study at Peterhouse, Cambridge, graduating with a BA in 1922, followed by an MA four years later. Butterfield was a fellow at Cambridge in 1928-79, and in the 1950s, he was a fellow of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. He was Master of Peterhouse (1955–1968), Vice-Chancellor of the University (1959–1961), and Regius Professor of Modern History (1963—1968). Butterfield served as editor of the Cambridge Historical Journal from 1938 to 1955. He was knighted in 1968. He married Edith Joyce Crawshaw in 1929 and had three children.
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