| Birth date | June 18, 1821 |
|---|---|
| Birth place | Boston, Massachusetts |
| Death date | January 16, 1903 (aged 81) |
| Death place | Brookline, Massachusetts |
| Education | Harvard Law School |
| Occupation | Philosopher, author |
| Spouse | Elizabeth Dwight (m. 1857; ended 1901) |
| Father | Samuel Cabot Jr. |
| Family | Cabot family |
James Elliot Cabot (June 18, 1821 – January 16, 1903)[1] was an American philosopher and author, born in Boston to Samuel Cabot Jr., and Eliza Cabot.
Education and career
Having received his bachelor's degree from Harvard Law School in 1845, Elliot started a law firm.[2]
He taught philosophy at Harvard and was a transcendentalist and edited the Massachusetts Quarterly Review, beginning in 1848. Cabot was a correspondent of Henry David Thoreau.
Views and publications
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.[3]
His 2-volume biography of Ralph Waldo Emerson was criticized for its lack of color.[4] According to the review in The Saturday Review of Politics, Literature, Science, and Art, Cabot "gives abundant materials for forming, correcting, or filling up an idea of Emerson's character, but comparatively little information about the events of a life which appears, indeed, to have been very uneventful."[5]
Family
On September 27, 1857, Cabot married Elizabeth Dwight, daughter of Edmund Dwight. They had seven sons:[6]
- Francis Elliot Cabot (1859–1939), a member of the Boston Board of Fire Underwriters from 1883 to 1926.[7]
- Edward Twistleton Cabot (1861–1893), captain of the 1882 Harvard Crimson football team and an attorney.[8]
- Thomas Handasyde Cabot (1864–1938), a merchant.[9]
- Charles Mills Cabot (1866–1915) founder of the investment firm Moors & Cabot.[10] Father of actor Elliot Cabot.[11]
- Richard Clarke Cabot (1868–1939), a physician who advanced clinical hematology, was an innovator in teaching methods, and a pioneer in social work.[12]
- Philip Cabot (1872–1941), a professor of business administration at the Harvard Business School, public utility expert, and vestryman at King's Chapel.[13]
- Hugh Cabot (1872–1945), surgeon and educator who was dean of the University of Michigan Medical School and a member of the staff at the Mayo Clinic. He was a specialist in genitourinary surgery and an advocate of group medical practice.[14]
Elizabeth Cabot died in 1901.[6]
References
- ^ Higginson, T. W.. 1904. "James Elliot Cabot". Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences 39 (24). American Academy of Arts & Sciences: 649–55.
- ^ Waldo Emerson, Edward (1967). The Early Years of the Saturday Club. Ayer Publishing. p. 264.
- ^ Richardson, Robert D. (2007-09-14). William James: In the Maelstrom of American Modernism: a Biography. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. p. 197. ISBN 978-0-618-91989-5.
James Elliot Cabot.
- ^ Nancy Craig Simmons (1983). "Arranging the Sibylline Leaves: James Elliot Cabot's Work as Emerson's Literary Executor". Studies in the American Renaissance
- ^ "Review of Memoir of Ralph Waldo Emerson by James Elliot Cabot". The Saturday Review of Politics, Literature, Science, and Art. 64 (1673): 708. November 19, 1887.
- ^ Briggs, L. Vernon (1927). Historyn and Genealogy of the Cabot Family: 1475- 1927. Boston: Charles E. Goodspeed & Co. p. 696. Retrieved 24 December 2025.
- ^ "Francis E. Cabot". The New York Times. January 9, 1938.
- ^ "Obituary Notes". The New York Times. November 12, 1893.
- ^ "Thomas H. Cabot". The Boston Globe. February 4, 1938.
- ^ "Charles M. Cabot Dead In Beverly". The Boston Globe. September 6, 1915.
- ^ Who Was Who in the Theatre: 1912-76, p. 353, vol. 1 A-C, compiled from editions originally published annually by John Parker; this version by Gale Research. ISBN 0-8103-0406-6 ;UK ISBN 0-273-01313-0
- ^ "Cabot, Richard C. (Richard Clarke), 1868–1939. Papers of Richard Clarke Cabot : an inventory," Archived January 2, 2016 at the Wayback Machine Harvard University archives. Accessed January 5, 2016.
- ^ "Prof. Philip Cabot of Harvard Dies suddenly at 69". The Boston Globe. December 26, 1941.
- ^ "Dr. Hugh Cabot, 74, Surgeon, Educator". The New York Times. August 16, 1945.
External links
- Papers, 1786–1945. Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University.
- Massachusetts Quarterly Review, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Theodore Parker, James Elliot Cabot