Henry Jones (philosopher)

Sir Henry Jones, CH (30 November 1852 – 4 February 1922), was a Welsh philosopher and academic.

He was born in Llangernyw, now in Conwy County Borough, the son of a shoemaker. After working as an apprentice to his father, he studied at Bangor Normal College and became a teacher at Brynamman. Having decided to enter the Presbyterian ministry, he went to the University of Glasgow on a scholarship. After graduating, he obtained a fellowship, and went on to study at Oxford and in Germany. In 1882 he married a Scotswoman, and later returned to live in Scotland.

He was instrumental in the passing of the Intermediate Education Act of 1889, and worked for the establishment of the University of Wales and the introduction of a penny rate for education. He was knighted in 1912. He was appointed Companion of Honour in 1922, shortly before his death.

• Browning as a Philosophical and Religious Teacher (1891)
• A Critical Account of the Philosophy of Lotze (1895)
• The Immortality of the Soul in the Poems of Tennyson and Browning the Essex Hall Lecture for 1905 (1907) also online as a PDF file from the Unitarians UK website
• Idealism as a Practical Creed (1909)
• The Working Faith of the Social Reformer: and other essays (1910)
• Social Powers: three popular lectures on the environment, the press and the pulpit (1913)
• The Principles of Citizenship (1919)
• The Life and Philosophy of Edward Caird joint author with J H Muirhead (1921)
• A Faith that Enquires Gifford Lectures (1922)
• Old Memories: An Autobiography edited by Thomas Jones (1923)
• Essays on Literature and Education edited by H J W Hetherington (undated but perhaps 1924).

See also The Life and Letters of Sir Henry Jones by H J W Hetherington (1925) - further information online as a PDF file from Cardiff University website