Noah Porter

Noah Porter 1811-92, American educator and philosopher, b. Farmington, Conn., grad. Yale, 1831. He entered the ministry in 1836. In 1846 he became professor of moral philosophy and metaphysics at Yale and from 1871 to 1886 was 12th president of the university. As president he steadfastly opposed modern tendencies in education, urging the retention of Greek and Latin as the basis for the liberal arts course, the subordination of science to the humanities, and a prescribed curriculum rather than an elective system. He edited (1864, 1890) revised editions of Noah Webster's dictionary and wrote a number of educational and philosophical works, the most popular of which was The Human Intellect (1868).

Bibliography: See biography by T. Dwight (1892).

Porter, Noah (1811–92), professor of moral philosophy and metaphysics at Yale (1846–71) and president of the college (1871–86). Although a staunch Calvinist and bitter opponent of Darwinism, he is considered a leader of modern thought because his book The Human Intellect (1868) was an important early work on psychology. His other books include The Sciences of Nature Versus the Science of Man (1871) and Science and Humanity (1872).