author
Jane Hume Clapperton
1832–1914
A Scottish philosopher and reformer, she wrote boldly about ethics, women’s lives, socialism, and the possibility of a fairer future. Her work brings together sharp social criticism with an unusually hopeful vision of change.
1 Audiobook
A Vision of the Future, Based on the Application of Ethical Principles
by Jane Hume Clapperton
About the author
Born in Edinburgh on September 22, 1832, Jane Hume Clapperton grew up in a large, prosperous family and later became known as a philosopher, social reformer, and campaigner for women’s rights. She spent much of her life in Edinburgh and was part of the wider world of late Victorian and Edwardian radical thought.
Her books show how wide her interests were. She wrote on ethical and social questions in works such as Scientific Meliorism and the Evolution of Happiness and A Vision of the Future, Based on the Application of Ethical Principles, and she also published the novel Margaret Dunmore: or, A Socialist Home. Across her writing, she argued that society could be improved through reason, justice, and better relations between women and men.
Clapperton is also remembered as an early supporter of birth control, a socialist-minded reformer, and a suffragist. She died in Edinburgh on September 30, 1914. No confirmed portrait image was found in the sources I checked, so a profile image is not included here.