Wright, Chauncey (1830–1875)

US philosopher. He has been praised as anticipating 20th-century trends in philosophy, but he was overshadowed by William James and others.

Born in Northampton, Massachusetts, he graduated from Harvard after studies in mathematics and science in 1852. He worked for the American Ephemerist and Nautical Almanac, until a legacy in 1872 allowed him to retire. He lived a simple, often melancholy bachelor's existence in Cambridge, where he associated with William James and CS Peirce as senior member of a discussion group ironically titled the Metaphysical Club. A stimulating conversationalist, Wright wrote scientific and philosophical essays in an empirical vein. Most of these – including his most significant one, ‘Evolution of Self-Consciousness’ – appeared in the North American Review. He taught sporadically at Harvard (1870, 1874–75).