John Hoppus

John Hoppus FRS (1789–1875) was an English Congregational minister, author, Fellow of the Royal Society, abolitionist and educational reformer. He was appointed the first Chair of Logic and Philosophy of Mind at the newly formed London University (now University College, London), a position he secured and held against his formidable opponents from 1829 to 1866.

Early life John Hoppus was born in London. He was educated at a dissenting academy in the north of England, the Rotherham Independent College, and completed his studies first at Edinburgh University under Dugald Stewart, then at Glasgow University where Thomas Chalmers taught. Between 1824 and 1825 he was pastor of the independent Carter Lane Chapel, Bermondsey.

University appointment When Hoppus was a young man, England had only two universities, Oxford and Cambridge, and they were restricted to Anglicans. This led to the emergence of many privately funded independent dissenting academies, many of which functioned as colleges, preparing young men for university studies abroad, in Scotland or on the Continent. In the early nineteenth century, a group of English reformers with liberal educational ideas promoted the idea of a place of further education that might open its doors to men of all religious affiliations or beliefs. This proposal succeeded between 1825 and 1828 with the founding of London University, now University College London, the first entirely nondenominational college of higher education in England.

The new college wanted to establish academic, moral and political philosophy in its curriculum, so it decided, as early as 1827, to appoint two chairs of philosophy – one of Logic and the Philosophy of the Human Mind, and the other of Moral and Political philosophy. The former position was intended to teach students about knowledge and the acquisition of ideas, and the second with translation of this into moral and political human action.

Candidates for the two posts were sought in 1827. London University was opposed by the more traditional of the high church sections of the establishment, and a backlash arose that led to a rival, King's College London being established. Mindful of their delicate political position, no appointments could be agreed upon for the two key posts of Chairs of Philosophy, either of which might attract a hostile press, eager to undermine the institution for its liberal sentiments, values and ideas.

Although Thomas Southwood Smith and John Hoppus were considered for the two philosophy appointments, the posts were left vacant. George Grote, one of the promoters of London University, convinced the college that appointment of a Congregational minister such as John Hoppus would imply a religious affiliation, contrary to the institution's nondenominational principles. Grote therefore promoted his own candidate, Charles Cameron. However, Zachary Macaulay and others on the college's Council decided that the teaching of ethics had to have a religious basis (one of the emerging criticisms of the college from its detractors was that it was "an ungodly institution"). Seemingly with the agreement of Grote's two fellow promoters of the college, James Mill and Henry Brougham, and whilst Grote was absent (perhaps advisedly so if, as some claim, Jeremy Bentham supported Hoppus' candidature), the College Council recommended John Hoppus for the Chair of Philosophy – which would now become a single academic position, this being perhaps less potent to the college's critics. Grote resigned on 2 February 1830, his concept of the new institution, and the way forward, which he had mistakenly believed would be Bentham's wish, overturned. John Hoppus became the institution's first Professor of Philosophy (Professor of Logic and Mental Philosophy) in 1830; a position he held for over thirty years, until he retired as Emeritus Professor in 1866.

His succession was bitterly fought over, as had been his appointment, with some of the same protagonists; but this time Grote (who had been re-elected to the College Council in 1849 ) was more successful in securing the outcome he wanted (blocking the appointment of James Martineau); and Grote's wife, the writer Harriet Levin, prevailed on the college historian as the new controversy unfolded. An altogether unflattering sketch of Hoppus was entered in the college historian's pages, though his contribution has been treated more dispassionately in recent years.

Academic life John Hoppus's lectures at UCL earned the institution high acclaim. Described as "thorough and exhaustive" they covered René Descartes, Nicolas Malebranche, Baruch Spinoza, Gottfried Leibniz, Johann Gottlieb Fichte, John Locke, Christian Wolff, Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling, Immanuel Kant and post-Kantian idealists, and the ethical systems of Ralph Cudworth, Thomas Hobbes, Bernard Mandeville, Clarke, Price, Butler, Jeremy Bentham and James Mill. Several of his students went on to earn great distinction, including William Sheen (M.A. medalist in 1842), and Walter Bagehot (medalist in 1848), Richard Holt Hutton (medalist in 1849), and John Clifford(class prize, History of Philosophy, 1868).

Hoppus's other political interest lay in animal welfare; a number of disparate groups collected under this banner in the 1830s, amongst which he supported the Rational Humanity campaigners.

Death and memorial Hoppus died in London in 1875, and was interred at Abney Park Cemetery, Stoke Newington, north London. His memorial stone stands there today in Watts' Walk.