William Benjamin Carpenter
William Benjamin Carpenter (
October 29,
1813–
November 10,
1885) was an
English physiologist and
naturalist.
Carpenter was born at
Exeter, the eldest son of Dr. Lant Carpenter. He attended medical classes at
University College London, and then went to the
University of Edinburgh, where he received his
M.D. in 1839. The subject of his graduation thesis, "The Physiological Inferences to be Deduced from the Structure of the Nervous System of Invertebrated Animals," indicates a line of research which had fruition in his
Principles of General and Comparative Physiology. His work in comparative
neurology was recognized in
1844 by his election to the
Royal Society, which awarded him a Royal medal in 1861; and his appointment as Fullerian professor of physiology in the
Royal Institution in
1845 enabled him to exhibit his powers as a teacher and lecturer, his gift of ready speech and luminous interpretation placing him in the front rank of exponents, at a time when the popularization of science was in its infancy.
He worked hard as investigator, author, editor, demonstrator and lecturer throughout his life; but it was his researches in marine
zoology, notably in the lower organisms, as
Foraminifera and
Crinoids, that were most valuable. These researches gave an impetus to deep-sea exploration, an outcome of which was in 1868 the "Lightning," and later the more famous "
Challenger", expedition. He took a keen and laborious interest in the evidence adduced by Canadian
geologists as to the organic nature of the so-called
Eozoon Canadense, discovered in the
Laurentian strata, and at the time of his death had nearly finished a monograph on the subject, defending the now discredited theory of its animal origin. He was an adept in the use of the
microscope, and his popular treatise on
The Microscope and its Revelations (1856) stimulated a host of observers to the use of the "added sense" with which it endowed man.
In
1856 Carpenter became registrar of the
University of London, and held the office for twenty-three years; on his resignation in
1879 he was made a C.B. in recognition of his services to education generally.
Biologist as he was, Carpenter nevertheless made reservations as to the extension of the doctrine of evolution to man's intellectual and spiritual nature. In his
Principles of Mental Physiology he asserted both the freedom of the will and the existence of the "
Ego," and one of his last public engagements was the reading of a paper in support of
miracles. He died in
London, from injuries occasioned by the accidental upsetting of a spirit-lamp.
Carpenter is considered as one of the founders of the modern theory of the adaptive unconscious. Together with
William Hamilton and
Thomas Laycock they provided the foundations on which today adaptive unconscious is based. They observed that the human perceptual system almost completely operates outside of conscious awareness. These same observations have been made by
Hermann Helmholtz. Because these views were in conflict with the theories of
Descartes, they were largely neglected, until the
cognitive revolution of the 1950s. in
1874 Carpenter noticed that the more he studied the mechanism of thought, the more clear it became that it operates largely outside awareness. He noticed that the unconscious prejudices can be stronger than conscious thought and that they are more dangerous since they happen outside of conscious.
He also noticed that emotional reactions can occur outside of conscious until attention is drawn to them.
Our feelings towards persons and objects may undergo most important changes, without our being in the least degree aware, until we have our attention directed to our own mental state, of the alteration which has taken place in them. (Carpenter, 1874)
