Echoes of Larger Life. Exploring Victoria Welby’s Correspondence, in particular with Mary Everest-Boole

According to Victoria Lady Welby (1837-1912) who inspired the spread of the Significs Movement across the first half of the twentieth century in the Netherlands, the history of the human race is also the history of continuous deviations, the loss of the capacity for discernment and criticism being the most serious. This loss induces humanity to be satisfied with the reality as-it-is, when instead what is needed for progress and improvement is the condition of eternal dissatisfaction: “We all, men and women, now tend to be satisfied [...] with things as they are. But we have all entered this world precisely to be dissatisfied with it”. The mathematician Mary Everest Boole (1832-1916) shared a common interest with Welby in philosophy and education. Their friendship unfolded through their correspondence as they joined forces in their appeal for the development of meaning, understanding and the critical capacity, for the critique of bad linguistic usage and of accompanying inclination for prejudice. Rejecting all forms of conflict and violence, both women advocated an education in philosophy and the sciences for a culture of peace, open to the other, based on dialogue and encounter making for a healthy humanizing world. This chapter highlights significant aspects in the research of these two women as it unfolded in their correspondence from 1884 to 1886. From different angles both were committed to studies in sign, language and logic interconnectedly with social practice: Welby with her proposal of a theory of meaning, values, and mother-sense, her significs; Boole with her interest in logic associated with love, passion and desire.