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Sir William Hamilton, 9th Baronet FRSE DD FSAS was a Scottish metaphysician. He is sometimes referred to as William Stirling Hamilton of Preston, in reference to his mother, Elizabeth Stirling.
Visits to Germany in 1817 and 1820 led to Hamilton taking up the study of German and later on that of contemporary German philosophy. In 1821 he was appointed professor of civil history at the University of Edinburgh, and delivered several courses of lectures on the history of modern Europe and the history of literature.
In 1829 his essay on the Philosophy of the Unconditioned (a critique of Victor Cousin's Cours de philosophie) appeared in the Edinburgh Review. In 1836 he was elected to the Chair of Logic and Metaphysics at University of Edinburgh.