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Whewell was most vehemently opposed at Cambridge by the philosopher William Hamilton, champion of philosophy and exponent of humanitarianism and the traditional humanities. The humanities emphasize the uniqueness of the human being; humanitarians believe all subjects must be taught in that humane vein.

The humanitatis usually include Grammar, Rhetoric, History, Poetry, and Ethics. The subjects were traditionally studied in the classical Greek and Latin languages. Eventually, the term 'humanities' meant philosophy and art as distinguished from the sciences. Hamilton insisted on the prime importance of philosophy and a 'liberal' education, explaining that the sole purpose of a liberal education is to liberate people.

The famous Seven Liberal Arts are Grammar, Rhetoric, Dialectic, Arithmetic, Geometry, Astronomy and Music. The foundation of the Seven is the first three, the trivium, while the rest are known as the quadrivium. The trivium was considered to be a preparation for the quadrivium and for higher philosophy. Its subjects were much broader in scope or less technical than they are today; for instance, Grammar was the study of the best literature in the world; Rhetoric, the art of persuasion essential to politics; Dialectic, the art of conversational argument and analysis such as that found in the philosophy of Plato.

The trivium along with Arithmetic was basically speaking the 3-Rs taught at the 'trivium' (the crossroads - three roads crossing) in ancient Greece and Rome by teachers whose fees from poorer children were not enough to rent classrooms. The trivium, then, was in effect grammar school; study of the trivium was continued and improved no matter how high the education.

As we can see from the ancient forums and courts on down to our own congresses and courts, people who master the trivium are, generally speaking, the political and intellectual masters of civilized society. Yet since the advent of the scientific-industrial revolution, the modern democratic temperament resented the mastery and tended to discount the importance of a 'liberal education' and the 'humanities', derogating them as the idle pastimes of arrogant aristocrats. Wealth buys the leisure required for such studies. And when new wealth can be had by industrious people who do not have a liberal education or who might even be illiterate, wealth can always buy, as Henry Ford testified, someone who has an education and who can read and write. Nevertheless, the liberally educated, sophisticated big-talkers still rule the Henry Fords.Therefore it is not surprising that savvy democratic teachers bemoan and rue the decline of 'liberal education'' and the humanities, especially in rude and crude America. Since kids are romantically inclined, those teachers have been known to tell them about the education of such eloquent heroes as Abraham Lincoln.A more highly educated log-cabin to White House president was James Garfield.

Now the foregoing is merely prelude to the following, which might be misunderstood without it. William Whewell and William Hamilton are hardly household names; a discussion of the controversy between them might put serious people to sleep without a contextual introduction, and even that might cause them to doze off although the sophists might be diminishing their liberties and selling them out while they sleep.

Whewell wanted to elevate the quantitative (material) science over qualitative (liberal or spiritual) art. That would reduce the humanities (whose mother is Wisdom, known only by Philosophy, the infinite end of which is ideal human liberty) to insignificance, pursuant to the creed that every natural and social event (fact) is 'naturally' determined by material (objective) or mechanical cause-effect, without occasional ('miraculous' or 'moral' or 'spiritual') intervention by a willing subject. Therefore scientism seems to hold that, if only prior knowledge of previous facts and their relations are adequate, then everything that follows would be predictable. The god Chance or the goddess Fortuna and the providential God with his miracles are merely excuses, then, for ignorance. Fate, instead of being indicative of an intervention in the natural order of things, or a projection of the human freedom we want when our own plans or determinations go awry, is nothing but the final term of a series: she drowned on such and such a date at; the ship was wrecked at that place and the oil formed a slick on top of the water, killing 786 birds of 14 species; etc. As for human society, Newton's laws should also apply, and if only the quantitative methods were perfected, if only there were enough data, your fate would be known in advance.

To Whewell's 'scientific' way of thinking, deemed to be the proper therefore the most honored mode of thinking, Hamilton the philosopher objected. He preferred that philosophy retain her position, as Queen of all sciences.

"As observed by Aristotle and Kant, of all our rational or a priori sciences, Mathematics alone admit of being at once learnt," Hamilton said. "As to Philosophy, a system without preparatory exercise is incommunicable; we can only learn to observe, to think, to reason - in a word, to philosophize. Thus Mathematics, not Philosophy, is taught to boys; and to be a Mathematician is no pledge that a man is not an imbecile or a barbarian."

Hamilton wanted to cling to Queen Philosophy at Cambridge.Some humanitarians still agree with him, and hold that children should be prepared for philosophy as soon as possible. That may be done with excellent results. Take, for instance, John Sturat Mill's home-schooled command of the humanities when he was 12-years-old exceeded that of today's college graduate. Yes, Mathematics is a valuable language, but Hamilton put man before math, and philosophy before science.Since philosophy still enjoyed some prestige, mathematicians were given to calling their favorite subject philosophical.

"It may be proper here to remark upon the vague universality which is given to the terms philosophy and philosophical in common English; an indefinitude limited especially to this country. Mathematics and Physics may here be called philosophical sciences; whereas, on the Continent, they are exclused from Philosophy, philosophical there being applied to those sciences which are immediately or mediately mental. Hegel, in one of his works, mentions that in looking over what in England are published under the title 'Philosophical Transactions,' he had been unable to find any philosophy at all. This abusive employment of the words is favoured, I believe, principally at Cambridge; for if Mathematics and Physics are not philosophical, then that university must confess that it now encourages no philosophy whatever."

The controversy continues today. An acquaintance of mine, a an historian, economist, and sociologist, gives himself warrant to decide what is best for Muslims; to wit: to be modernized. Wherefore he insists that liberal arts and the humanties should not be taught to Muslim kids; they should be taught to read and write so they can study science and technology.I disagreed with him at length, beginning with Grammar in its broadest sense, the study of the world's best literature. He responded that the world's best literature is 'irrelevant.' I suppose a better scientific education would allow a fanatic fundamentalist to build a better atom bomb.