Exploratio Philosophica Book

John Grote (1813-1866), brother of the historian and parliamentary radical George, was a clergyman and academic - in 1855 he succeeded William Whewell as professor of Moral Philosophy at Cambridge. Only Part One of the Exploratio, described modestly as 'rough notes on modern intellectual science', appeared during Grote's lifetime; the second volume appeared as late as 1900. The work is a substantive contribution to nineteenth-century metatphysics, with discussions of idealism and materialism, positivism and phenomenalism, consciousness and the self. Grote also coined the term 'relativism' to characterize the thesis of Protagoras that 'man is the measure of all things'. Among contemporary philosophers whose ideas are discussed we find Hamilton, Ferrier, Whewell, and of course J.S. Mill.