Person: Molyneux, William
William Molyneux was an Irish scientist and philosopher who worked on optics.
Mathematical Profile (Excerpt):
- Captain Samuel Molyneux was a lawyer, master gunner, landowner of English ancestry and also a skilled mathematician.
- William was educated at home by a private tutor, then attended a grammar school in Dublin.
- Molyneux began to correspond with John Flamsteed and explained to him how difficult it was to undertake scientific investigations in Ireland.
- We have mentioned this correspondence since it is likely that it was this that gave William Molyneux the idea of founding a similar society in Ireland.
- One of their first projects, proposed by Molyneux, was to collaborate with societies in London and Oxford to observe the solar eclipse of July 1684.
- Molyneux himself published 13 articles in the Philosophical Transactions.
- Molyneux was appointed Chief Engineer and Surveyor-General of the King's Buildings and Works in Ireland in 1684 and, in the following year, as part of his duties he went to Flanders to study fortresses there.
- On 3 February 1686 Molyneux was elected a fellow of the Royal Society.
- Molyneux had completed work on his book Dioptrica Nova while in Chester.
- It presents 59 propositions, three of which were due to Flamsteed, and Molyneux acknowledges this.
- The defeat of James led to the eventual reestablishment of the Dublin Philosophical Society in 1693 but by this stage Molyneux was one of the Dublin University representatives in the Irish House of Commons having been elected on 17 September 1692.
- Molyneux and Locke were both empiricist, so believed that all knowledge comes from experiences.
- For them the answer to the Molyneux Problem is "no." However, a rationalist believes that people are born with abilities to reason which would allow the man to recognise the cube and sphere.
- Molyneux supported the government and was re-elected in the summer of 1695.
- Many see this work by Molyneux, which for the first time argues "No taxation without representation," as being fundamental in the rise of the 'patriot' movements in Ireland.
- Molyneux had suffered all his life with kidney problems.
Born 17 April 1656, Dublin, Ireland. Died 11 October 1698, Dublin, Ireland.
View full biography at MacTutor
Tags relevant for this person:
Origin Ireland
Thank you to the contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0! 
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- non-Github:
- @J-J-O'Connor
- @E-F-Robertson
References
Adapted from other CC BY-SA 4.0 Sources:
- O’Connor, John J; Robertson, Edmund F: MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive
