Alfred Henry Lloyd (January 3, 1864 – May 11, 1927) was an American philosopher.

Life

Lloyd received both his B.A. and M.A. degrees from Harvard. He studied philosophy at

Göttingen University Göttingen (, , ; nds, Chöttingen) is a university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the capital of the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. At the end of 2019, the population was 118,911. General information The o ...

and

Heidelberg University } Heidelberg University, officially the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg, (german: Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg; la, Universitas Ruperto Carola Heidelbergensis) is a public university, public research university in Heidelberg, B ...

, before returning to Harvard for his Ph.D., which he received in 1893. Upon returning from Europe in 1891, Lloyd was recruited by John Dewey as an instructor in philosophy at the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

. He remained there his entire career, becoming full professor in 1906. He was named dean of the Graduate School in 1915. Lloyd was interim president of the University of Michigan from February 26 through September 1925, following the death of

Marion LeRoy Burton Marion LeRoy Burton (August 30, 1874 – February 18, 1925) was the second president of Smith College, serving from 1910 to 1917. He left Smith to become president of the University of Minnesota from 1917 to 1920. In 1920 he became president o ...

. He was succeeded by

Clarence Cook Little Clarence Cook Little (October 6, 1888 – December 22, 1971) was an American genetics, cancer, and tobacco researcher and academic administrator, as well as a eugenicist. Early life C. C. Little was born in Brookline, Massachusetts and atte ...

. Lloyd's daughter, Alice Crocker Lloyd, served as the Dean of Women.

Works

Lloyd was the author of five books—''Citizenship and Salvation'' (1897), ''Dynamic Idealism'' (1898), ''Philosophy of History'' (1899), '' The Will to Doubt'' (1907), and ''Leadership and Progress'' (1922)—and over 70 articles.

The Will to Doubt

''The Will to Doubt'' was Lloyd's fourth book and was published as a volume in the Ethical Library Series. The book was a response to

William James William James (January 11, 1842 – August 26, 1910) was an American philosopher, historian, and psychologist, and the first educator to offer a psychology course in the United States. James is considered to be a leading thinker of the lat ...

' 1896 collection of essays titled ''

The Will to Believe "The Will to Believe" is a lecture by William James, first published in 1896, which defends, in certain cases, the adoption of a belief without prior evidence of its truth. In particular, James is concerned in this lecture about defending the ratio ...

''. Professor Lloyd's simple thesis is that "doubt is essential to real belief". He wrote at the beginning of the 20th century, in what he called an age of doubt: Fear is a chief motivator of

dogmatism Dogma is a belief or set of beliefs that is accepted by the members of a group without being questioned or doubted. It may be in the form of an official system of principles or doctrines of a religion, such as Roman Catholicism, Judaism, Isla ...

, and dogmatic people are slaves to their fears. This is not genuine confidence. But doubt is not the road to atheism; in fact, doubt is part of a very difficult road to

theism Theism is broadly defined as the belief in the existence of a supreme being or deities. In common parlance, or when contrasted with '' deism'', the term often describes the classical conception of God that is found in monotheism (also referred ...

.''Will to Doubt'', p. 27

Bertrand Russell Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, (18 May 1872 – 2 February 1970) was a British mathematician, philosopher, logician, and public intellectual. He had a considerable influence on mathematics, logic, set theory, linguistics, ...

built upon these arguments in subsequent years, even directly referencing Lloyd in Free Thought and Official Propaganda.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Lloyd, Alfred, Henry 1864 births 1927 deaths Philosophers from New Jersey Harvard University alumni People from Montclair, New Jersey University of Michigan faculty

Life

Works

The Will to Doubt

See also

References

Further reading

External links