Education Harvard Law School Role Author Name James Cabot | Religion Transcendentalism Occupation Philosopher, author | |
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Born June 18, 1821 ( 1821-06-18 ) Boston, Massachusetts, U.S. Died January 16, 1903(1903-01-16) (aged 81)
Brookline, Massachusetts Spouse(s) Elizabeth Cabot (nee Dwight) (m. September 28, 1857) Children Edward Twisleton Cabot (born 1861)
Charles Mills Cabot (born 1866)
Richard Clarke Cabot (born 1868)
Hugh Cabot (born 1872)
Philip Cabot (born 1872) Books A Memoir of Ralph Waldo E, Lake Superior: Its Physic, Emerson's Complete Works; Mi | ||
James Elliot Cabot (June 18, 1821 – January 16, 1903) was an American philosopher and author, born in Boston to Samuel Cabot, Jr., and Eliza Cabot. James (known by his family and friends as "Elliot") had six brothers: Thomas Handasyd Cabot (b. 1814), Samuel Cabot III (b. 1815), Edward Clarke Cabot (b. 1818), Stephen Cabot (b. 1826), Walter Channing Cabot (b. 1829), and Louis Cabot (b. 1837).
Having received his bachelor's degree from Harvard Law School in 1845, Elliot started a law firm.
He taught philosophy at Harvard and was a transcendentalist and edited the Massachusetts Quarterly Review, beginning in 1848.
Cabot argued that we do not experience space directly, that space is "a system of relations, it cannot be given in any one sensation. [...] Space is a symbol of the general relatedness of objects constructed by thought from data which lie below consciousness." Cabot was of the opinion that the position of something in space was not felt at all, but deduced from perceived relations.
Cabot was a correspondent of Henry David Thoreau.
His biography of Ralph Waldo Emerson was criticized for its lack of colour.
Cabot and his wife Elizabeth had five sons, the most notable of them being Richard Clarke Cabot (1868–1939), a physician who advanced clinical hematology, was an innovator in teaching methods, and a pioneer in social work.