Henry Augustus Pearson Torrey (1837–1902) (also known as "HAP" or "Happy" Torrey) was an American professor of philosophy at the

University of Vermont The University of Vermont (UVM), officially the University of Vermont and State Agricultural College, is a public land-grant research university in Burlington, Vermont. It was founded in 1791 and is among the oldest universities in the United ...

. Torrey was a great-grandson of

Manasseh Cutler Manasseh Cutler (May 13, 1742 – July 28, 1823) was an American clergyman involved in the American Revolutionary War. He was influential in the passage of the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 and wrote the section prohibiting slavery in the Nort ...

who had been a member of the United States Congress. His father, Augustus Torrey, was a medical doctor. Torrey was born in Beverly, Massachusetts. He moved to the household of his uncle Joseph Torrey to go to Burlington High School. He then studied at the

, completing his bachelor's degree in 1858. After teaching school for a time in Beverly, Massachusetts, he went to the

Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York Union commonly refers to: * Trade union, an organization of workers * Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets Union may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * Union (band), an American rock group ** ''Un ...

from which he graduated in 1864. He was an ordained

Congregational Congregational churches (also Congregationalist churches or Congregationalism) are Protestant churches in the Calvinist tradition practising congregationalist church governance, in which each congregation independently and autonomously runs its ...

minister in

Vergennes, Vermont Vergennes is a city located in the northwest quadrant of Addison County, Vermont, United States. The municipality is bordered by the towns of Ferrisburgh, Panton, and Waltham. As of the 2020 census, its population was 2,553. It is the small ...

until he was appointed to the faculty of the University of Vermont in 1868, taking on the Chair that had previously belonged to his uncle. He also served as secretary of the University starting in 1871, the year the university began to admit women. A "sound philosopher", Torrey was an

Intuitionist In the philosophy of mathematics, intuitionism, or neointuitionism (opposed to preintuitionism), is an approach where mathematics is considered to be purely the result of the constructive mental activity of humans rather than the discovery of f ...

, as well as possessing a strong interest in

Immanuel Kant Immanuel Kant (, , ; 22 April 1724 – 12 February 1804) was a German philosopher and one of the central Enlightenment thinkers. Born in Königsberg, Kant's comprehensive and systematic works in epistemology, metaphysics, ethics, and ...

, having "cut his philosophical teeth" on the '' Critique of Pure Reason''. Nevertheless, Torrey did not follow any single philosophical system, and as a result he encouraged his students towards inquiry over the following of a particular approach. Torrey taught John Dewey both when Dewey was a student at the University of Vermont and later in one-on-one sessions, in particular when Dewey returned to Vermont in the early 1880s to teach in a private academy. This period of private tuition was a considerable influence on Dewey, as it was this period when Torrey pointed Dewey towards a career in philosophy. Torrey's interest in Kant and the emphasis he placed on Kant's writings in his teaching influenced Dewey's early work, as evidenced in Dewey's first four publications. In 1865 he married Sarah Paine Torrey, a daughter of his uncle Joseph Torrey, and thus his first cousin.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Torrey, Henry Augustus Pearson 1837 births University of Vermont alumni Union Theological Seminary (New York City) alumni University of Vermont faculty 1902 deaths 19th-century American philosophers People from Beverly, Massachusetts Burlington High School (Vermont) alumni