John Toland

John Toland (30 November 1670 – 11 March 1722) was a rationalist philosopher and freethinker, and occasional satirist, who wrote numerous books and pamphlets on political philosophy and philosophy of religion, which are early expressions of the philosophy of the Age of Enlightenment. Born in Ireland, he was educated at the universities of Glasgow, Edinburgh, Leiden and Oxford and was influenced by the philosophy of John Locke.

Biography

Very little is known of Toland's early life. He was born in Ardagh on the Inishowen Peninsula, a predominantly Catholic and Irish-speaking region in northwestern Ireland. His parents are unknown. He would later write that he had been baptised Janus Junius, a play on his name that recalled both the Roman two-faced god Janus and Junius Brutus, reputed founder of the Roman republic. According to his biographer Pierre des Maizeaux, he adopted the name John as a schoolboy with the encouragement of his school teacher.

Having formally converted from Catholicism to Protestantism at the age of 16, Toland got a scholarship to study theology at the University of Glasgow. In 1690, at age 19, the University of Edinburgh conferred a master's degree on him. He then got a scholarship to spend two years studying at University of Leiden in Holland, and subsequently nearly two years at Oxford in England (1694–95). The Leiden scholarship had been provided by wealthy English Dissenters, who hoped Toland would go on to become a minister for Dissenters.

John Toland (disambiguation)

John Toland (1670–1722) was an Enlightenment philosopher.

John Toland may also refer to:

John Toland (mathematician)

John Francis Toland FRS FRSE (born 28 April 1949, Derry) is an Irish mathematician based in the UK. He is currently Director of the Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences and NM Rothschild & Sons Professor of Mathematical Sciences at the University of Cambridge, where he succeeded Sir David Wallace in October 2011.

His research interests include mathematical analysis and nonlinear partial differential equations, and he has made substantial contributions to the rigorous theory of steady water waves. In 1978, he proved Stokes' conjecture on the existence of gravity waves of maximum height on deep water, a previously open problem in mathematical hydrodynamics which dated back to the 19th century.

John Toland was Professor of Mathematics at the University of Bath from 1982 to 2011, and was Scientific Director of the International Centre for Mathematical Sciences from 2002 to 2010. He held an EPSRC Senior Research Fellowship from 1997 to 2002.

His awards include: London Mathematical Society's Senior Berwick Prize 2000; Honorary Fellowship of University College London 2008; Honorary DSc: Queen's University Belfast 2000, University of Edinburgh 2007, Heriot-Watt University 2007, University of Essex 2009, and the Royal Society's Sylvester Medal 2012.