View source for John Venn

{{Short description|English logician and philosopher (1834–1923)}}
{{Other people|John Venn}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2024}}
{{Use British English|date=August 2014}}
{{Infobox scientist
| name              = John Venn
| honorific_suffix  = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|FRS|FSA}}
| image             = John Venn 2.jpg
| caption           = 
| birth_date        = {{Birth date|1834|8|4|df=y}}
| alma_mater        = [[Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge]]
| workplaces        = [[Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge]]
| birth_place       = [[Kingston upon Hull]], [[Yorkshire]], England
| death_date        = {{Death date and age|1923|4|4|1834|8|4|df=y}}
| death_place       = [[Cambridge]], England
| field             = {{ubl|[[Mathematics]]|[[Logic]]<ref name="Venn1880"/>|[[Philosophy]]}}
| awards            = [[Fellow of the Royal Society]] (1883)
| known_for         = {{ubl|[[Frequentist probability]]|[[Reference class problem]]|[[Venn diagram]]}}
| signature         = John Venn signature.png
}}
[[File:Venn Building, University of Hull.jpg|thumb|The Venn Building, University of Hull]]
[[File:Venn-stainedglass-gonville-caius.jpg|thumb|upright|Stained glass window at [[Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge]], commemorating Venn and the [[Venn diagram]]]]
[[File:Venn-alternative-heritage.jpg|thumb|alt=Plaque in the form of a Venn diagram with one set labelled 'Mathematician, Philosopher & Anglican priest', a second set labelled 'Really strong beard game' with the overlapping area labelled 'John Venn'|Alternative Heritage plaque for John Venn in Hull]]
'''John Venn''', [[Fellow of the Royal Society|FRS]],<ref name="a1926"/><ref name="Pickles"/> [[Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London|FSA]]<ref name="Gibbins"/> (4 August 1834 – 4 April 1923) was an English [[mathematician]], [[logician]] and [[philosopher]] noted for introducing [[Venn diagram]]s, which are used in [[logic]], [[set theory]], [[probability]], [[statistics]], and [[computer science]]. In 1866, Venn published ''The Logic of Chance'', a groundbreaking book which espoused the frequency theory of [[probability]], arguing that probability should be determined by how often something is forecast to occur as opposed to "educated" assumptions. Venn then further developed [[George Boole]]'s theories in the 1881 work ''Symbolic Logic'', where he highlighted what would become known as Venn diagrams.

== Early life ==
John Venn was born on 4 August 1834 in [[Kingston upon Hull]], [[Yorkshire]],<ref name="Duignan"/> to Martha Sykes and Rev. [[Henry Venn (Church Missionary Society)|Henry Venn]], who was the rector of the parish of [[Drypool]]. His mother died when he was three years old.<ref name="Famous"/> Venn was descended from a long line of [[Evangelical Anglicanism|church evangelicals]], including his grandfather [[John Venn (priest)|John Venn]].<ref name="School"/> Venn was brought up in a very strict atmosphere at home. His father Henry had played a significant part in the Evangelical movement and he was also the secretary of the Society for Missions to Africa and the East, establishing eight bishoprics overseas. His grandfather was pastor to [[William Wilberforce]] of the abolitionist movement, in Clapham.

He began his education in [[London]] joining Sir Roger Cholmeley's School,<ref>Highgate School Roll 1833–1912, Unwin Brothers Ltd 1913</ref> now known as [[Highgate School]], with his brother Henry in September 1846. He moved on to Islington Proprietary School.<ref name="Gibbins"/><ref name="Duignan"/>

== University life and career ==
In October 1853, he went to [[Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge]]. He found the [[Mathematical Tripos]] unsuited to his mathematical style, complaining that the handful of private tutors he worked with "always had the Tripos prominently in view". In contrast, Venn wished to investigate interesting ideas beyond the syllabus. Nonetheless, he was Sixth [[Wrangler (University of Cambridge)|Wrangler]] upon sitting the exams in January 1857.<ref name="Maths Today"/>

Venn experienced, in his words, a "reaction and disgust" to the Tripos which led him to sell his books on mathematics and state that he would never return to the subject.<ref name="Maths Today"/> Following his family vocation, he was ordained as an [[Anglican priest]] in 1859, serving first at the church in [[Cheshunt]], Hertfordshire, and later in [[Mortlake]], Surrey.<ref name="Soylent"/>

In 1862, he returned to Cambridge as a lecturer in moral science, studying and teaching [[political economy]], [[philosophy]], [[probability theory]] and [[logic]].<ref name="Duignan"/><ref name="Maths Today"/> He reacquainted himself with logic and became a leading scholar in the field through his textbooks ''The Logic of Chance'' (1866), ''Symbolic Logic'' (1881) and ''The Principles of Empirical or Inductive Logic'' (1889). His academic writing was influenced by his teaching: he saw [[Venn diagram]]s, which he called "[[Eulerian Circle]]s" and introduced in 1880, as a pedagogical tool. Venn was known for teaching students across multiple [[Colleges of the University of Cambridge|Cambridge colleges]], which was rare at the time.<ref name="Maths Today">{{cite magazine|title=The Venn Behind the Diagram|last=Verburgt|first=Lukas&nbsp;M.|volume=59|issue=2|date=April 2023|pages=53–55|magazine=Mathematics Today|publisher=[[Institute of Mathematics and its Applications]]}}</ref>

In 1883, he resigned from the clergy, having concluded that [[Anglicanism]] was incompatible with his philosophical beliefs.<ref name="Duignan"/>

In 1903 he was elected President of the college, a post he held until his death.<ref name="Duignan"/>

{{Quote|I began at once somewhat more steady work on the subjects and books which I should have to lecture on. I now first hit upon the diagrammatical device of representing propositions by inclusive and exclusive circles. Of course the device was not new then, but it was so obviously representative of the way in which any one, who approached the subject from the mathematical side, would attempt to visualise propositions, that it was forced upon me almost at once.|John Venn<ref name="Edwards"/>}}

With his son, Venn developed a [[bowling machine]] that was able to impart spin to a cricket ball. When members of the [[Australian cricket team in England in 1909|Australian cricket team]] visited Cambridge in June 1909, Venn’s machine bowled [[Victor Trumper]], one of their star batsmen. The machine was recreated in 2024 by the university engineering department.<ref>{{cite news |title=Cambridge University engineers recreate historic bowling machine |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/06/10/cambridge-university-recreates-historic-bowling-machine/ |access-date=10 June 2024 |work=Daily Telegraph |date=10 June 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Gordon-Farleigh |first1=Neve |title=Engineers recreate 1900s cricket bowling machine |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cjmmypey2ngo |access-date=11 June 2024 |work=BBC News |date=10 June 2024}}</ref>

In 1883, Venn was elected a Fellow of the [[Royal Society]],<ref>{{cite web |url=https://pictures.royalsociety.org/image-rs-8280 |title=Portrait of John Venn |website=Royal Society Picture Library |publisher=Royal Society |access-date=2 August 2018}}</ref> and in 1884, he was awarded a [[Doctor of Science|Sc.D.]] by Cambridge.<ref>{{cite journal |doi=10.1534/genetics.109.107847 |pmid=19797062 |pmc=2746166 |title=Statistical Methods for Evolutionary Trees |journal=Genetics |volume=183 |issue=1 |pages=5–12 |date=2009 |author-last=Edwards |author-first=A.&nbsp;W.&nbsp;F.}}</ref>

He died on 4 April 1923.<ref name="Duignan"/>

Buried at Trumpington churchyard extension, at the junction of Shelford Road and Hauxton Road. Grave located about halfway along path, on East side, shaded by trees.

== Civic and personal life ==
In 1868, Venn married Susanna Carnegie Edmonstone with whom he had one son, [[John Archibald Venn]]. His son entered the mathematics field as well and became Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge University.<ref name="Pickles">{{cite ODNB |id=40972 |title=Venn, John Archibald |first=John&nbsp;D. |last=Pickles}}</ref>

Venn was an active member of civic society in Cambridge. He was a committee member of the Cambridge Charitable Organisations Society, elected vice-chairman in December 1884.<ref>{{cite news |title=Cambridge Independent Press |url=http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000418/18841206/037/0006 |publisher=Cambridge Independent Press |access-date=13 April 2017 |date=6 December 1884}}</ref> Venn was president of the [[Cambridge Antiquarian Society]] in 1908–1909.<ref>{{cite news |title=Cambridge Independent Press |url=http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000418/19091029/053/0005 |access-date=13 April 2017 |publisher=Cambridge Independent Press |date=29 October 1909}}</ref> He is also listed as a vice president of the Cambridge Provident Medical Institution.<ref>{{cite news |title=Cambridge Independent Press |url=http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000418/18860213/025/0006 |publisher=Cambridge Independent Press |access-date=13 April 2017 |date=13 February 1886}}</ref>

Venn was a supporter of votes for women. He co-signed with his wife Susanna, a letter to the ''Cambridge Independent Press'', published 16 October 1908, encouraging women to put themselves forward as candidates for the Cambridge Town Council elections.<ref>{{cite news |title=Cambridge Independent Press |url=http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000418/19081016/083/0008 |publisher=Cambridge Independent Press |access-date=13 April 2017 |date=16 October 1908}}</ref> The letter was co-sponsored by [[Maud Darwin]] and [[Florence Ada Keynes]].

Venn was also a gardener, regularly taking part in local competitions organised by groups such as the Cambridgeshire Horticultural Society, winning prizes for his roses in July 1885<ref>{{cite news |title=Cambridge Independent Press |url=http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000418/18850711/047/0008 |publisher=Cambridge Independent Press |access-date=13 April 2017 |date=11 July 1885}}</ref> and for his white carrots later that September.<ref>{{cite news |title=Cambridge Independent Press |url=http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000418/18850919/029/0008 |publisher=Cambridge Independent Press |access-date=13 April 2017 |date=19 September 1885}}</ref>

Lived at Vicarsbrook, Chaucer Road, Cambridge from the early 1900s until his death in April 1923.

== Memorials ==
* In 2017 the [[Drypool Bridge]] in Hull was decorated with intersecting circles, in honour of Venn<ref>{{cite news |author-last=Young |author-first=Angus |date=5 June 2017 |title=John Venn inspired £325k makeover of Hull's Drypool Bridge is now complete |work=Hull Daily Mail |url=http://www.hulldailymail.co.uk/news/drypool-bridge-turned-work-art-91547 |access-date=12 November 2017}}</ref> and an unofficial '[[blue plaque]]' is installed near the same location on Clarence Street.
* Venn is commemorated at the [[University of Hull]] by the Venn Building.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.carnegiehull.co.uk/hull-firsts/john-venn.php |title=John Venn |website=Carnegie Heritage Centre |access-date=2 August 2018 |archive-date=26 November 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171126125654/https://www.carnegiehull.co.uk/hull-firsts/john-venn.php |url-status=dead }}</ref> 
* A [[stained glass]] window in the dining hall of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, commemorates Venn's work.
* Venn Street in Clapham, London, which was the home of his grandfather, shows a Venn diagram on the street sign.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.londonremembers.com/memorials/rev-and-dr-venn |title=Rev and Dr Venn |website=London Remembers |access-date=2 August 2018}}</ref>
* In March 2019, one of the rooms in Clay Farm Centre, Trumpington, south Cambridge was named the Venn Touchdown.

== Publications ==
Venn compiled ''[[Alumni Cantabrigienses]]'', a biographical register of former members of the [[University of Cambridge]].<ref name="Venn1922"/> It was edited by Venn and his son John Archibald Venn and published by [[Cambridge University Press]] in ten volumes between 1922 and 1953. 

His other works include:
{{refbegin}}
* {{cite journal |author-last=Venn |author-first=John |author-link=John Venn |title=Consistency and Real Inference |date=January 1876 |volume=1 |journal=[[Mind (journal)|Mind]] |url=http://fair-use.org/mind/1876/01/consistency-and-real-inference |issue=1}}
* {{cite book |title=Symbolic Logic |author-last=Venn |author-first=John |author-link=John Venn |date=1881 |publisher=[[Macmillan and Company]] |location=London |url=https://archive.org/details/symboliclogic00venniala |isbn=978-1-4212-6044-0}}
* {{cite journal |author-last=Venn |author-first=John |author-link=John Venn |title=On the Employment of Geometrical Diagrams for the Sensible Representation of Logical Propositions |journal=Proceedings of the Cambridge Philosophical Society |date=1880 |volume=4 |pages=47–59 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GpI1AAAAIAAJ&q=john+venn&pg=PA47}}
* {{cite book |author-last=Venn |author-first=John |author-link=John Venn |title=The Logic of Chance: An Essay on the Foundations and Province of the Theory of Probability, with Especial Reference to Its Application to Moral and Social Science |url=https://archive.org/details/logicchanceanes09venngoog/page/n9/mode/2up |edition=First |date=1866 |publisher=[[Macmillan (publisher)|Macmillan]] |location=London and Cambridge}}. Two further editions were published.<ref name="Venn1876"/><ref name="Venn1888"/>
* {{cite book |author-last=Venn |author-first=John |author-link=John Venn |title=Caius College |url=https://archive.org/details/caiuscollege00vennrich/page/n8/mode/2up |date=1901 |publisher=F. E. Robinson & Co. |location=London}}
* {{cite book |author-last=Caius |author-first=John |editor-first=John |editor-last=Venn |editor-link=John Venn |title=The Annals of Gonville and Caius College |url=https://archive.org/details/annalsofgonville00caiurich/page/n8/mode/2up |date=1904 |publisher=Printed for the Cambridge Antiquarian Society, sold by Deighton, Bell & Co.}}
* {{cite book |author-last=Venn |author-first=John |author-link=John Venn |title=Annals of a Clerical Family: Being Some Account of the Family and Descendants of William Venn, Vicar of Otterton, Devon, 1600–1621 |url=https://archive.org/details/annalsofclerical00vennuoft |date=1904 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |location=Cambridge |isbn=978-1-108-04492-9}}
* {{cite book |author-last=Venn |author-first=John |author-link=John Venn |title=On Some of the Characteristics of Belief |url=https://archive.org/details/onsomeofcharacte00venn |date=1870 |publisher=[[Macmillan and Co.]] |location=London and Cambridge}}
{{refend}}

== References ==
{{Reflist|refs=
<ref name="a1926">{{cite journal |author=Anonymous |doi=10.1098/rspa.1926.0036 |title=Obituary Notices of Fellows Deceased: Rudolph Messel, Frederick Thomas Trouton, John Venn, John Young Buchanan, Oliver Heaviside, Andrew Gray |journal=Proceedings of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences |volume=110 |issue=756 |pages=i–v |date=1926 |doi-access=free}}</ref>

<ref name="Duignan">{{cite encyclopedia |author-last=Duignan |author-first=Brian |encyclopedia=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]] |title=John Venn (English logician and philosopher) |url=http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/625445/John-Venn |access-date=3 August 2014 |date=22 May 2014}}</ref>
<ref name="Edwards">{{cite book |title=Cogwheels of the Mind: The Story of Venn Diagrams |author-first=Anthony William Fairbank |author-last=Edwards |author-link=Anthony William Fairbank Edwards<!-- |contribution=Foreword |contributor-first=Ian |contributor-last=Stewart --> |publisher=[[Johns Hopkins University Press]] |date=2004 |isbn=978-0-8018-7434-5 |location=Baltimore, Maryland, USA |page=3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7_0Thy4V3JIC&pg=PA65}}</ref>
<ref name="Famous">{{cite web |author=Anonymous |url=http://www.famous-mathematicians.com/john-venn/ |title=John Venn – Mathematician Biography, Facts and Pictures |date=20 January 2012 |publisher=Famous-mathematicians.com |access-date=3 August 2014}}</ref>
<ref name="Gibbins">Gibbins, John R. (2004) "Venn, John (1834–1923)", ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', [[Oxford University Press]]. {{doi|10.1093/ref:odnb/36639}}</ref>
<ref name="School">{{cite web |author=Anonymous |url=http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Venn.html |title=Venn biography |publisher=School of Mathematics and Statistics University of St Andrews, Scotland |date=October 2003 |access-date=3 August 2014}}</ref>
<ref name="Soylent">{{cite web |url=http://www.nndb.com/people/148/000275320/ |title=John Venn |author=Soylent Communications |date=2014 |access-date=3 August 2014}}</ref>
<ref name="Venn1876">{{cite book |author-last=Venn |author-first=John |author-link=John Venn |title=The Logic of Chance: An Essay on the Foundations and Province of the Theory of Probability, with Especial Reference to Its Logical Bearings and Its Application to Moral and Social Science |url=https://archive.org/details/50424309 |edition=Second |date=1876 |publisher=[[Macmillan (publisher)|Macmillan]]}}</ref>
<ref name="Venn1880">{{cite journal |author-last=Venn |author-first=John |author-link=John Venn |title=I. On the Diagrammatic and Mechanical Representation of Propositions and Reasonings |journal=[[The London, Edinburgh, and Dublin Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science]] |volume=10 |issue=59 |date=July 1880 |series=5 |doi=10.1080/14786448008626877 |pages=1–18 |url=https://www.cis.upenn.edu/~bhusnur4/cit592_fall2014/venn%20diagrams.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170516204620/https://www.cis.upenn.edu/~bhusnur4/cit592_fall2014/venn%20diagrams.pdf |archive-date=16 May 2017}} [https://books.google.com/books?id=k68vAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA1 Google Books]</ref>
<ref name="Venn1888">{{cite book |author-last=Venn |author-first=John |author-link=John Venn |title=The logic of chance: an essay on the foundations and province of the theory of probability, with especial reference to its logical bearings and its application to moral and social science, and to statistics |url=https://archive.org/details/logicofchance029416mbp |edition=Third |date=1888 |publisher=[[Macmillan (publisher)|Macmillan]]}}</ref>
<ref name="Venn1922">{{cite book |author-last=Venn |author-first=John |author-link=John Venn |title=Alumni Cantabrigienses: A Biographical List of All Known Students, Graduates and Holders of Office at the University of Cambridge, from the Earliest Times to 1900 |url=https://archive.org/details/alumnicantabrigipt1vol1univiala |date=1922 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |location=Cambridge}}</ref>
}}

== External links ==
{{commons category|John Venn}}
{{Wikiquote}}
* [http://venn.lib.cam.ac.uk/ A Cambridge Alumni Database] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110817184313/http://venn.lib.cam.ac.uk/ |date=17 August 2011 }}
* [http://www.mundus.ac.uk/cats/44/1206.htm The Venn archives] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171021120733/http://www.mundus.ac.uk/cats/44/1206.htm |date=21 October 2017 }} clarify the confusing timeline of the various Venns.
* [https://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/TimesObituaries/Venn.html Obituary of John Venn] (New York Times)
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20061002141018/http://theory.cs.uvic.ca/~cos/venn/VennPaintEJC.html Portrait of Venn] by [[C. E. Brock]], and a link to a site about Venn
* Another (clearer) view of the [https://web.archive.org/web/20070811072731/http://www.theory.cs.uvic.ca/~cos/venn/gifs/VennStain.gif Venn stained glass window]
* {{Find a Grave|14054755}}

{{Visualization}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Venn, John}}
[[Category:1834 births]]
[[Category:1923 deaths]]
[[Category:Mathematicians from Kingston upon Hull]]
[[Category:People educated at Highgate School]]
[[Category:Alumni of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge]]
[[Category:19th-century English philosophers]]
[[Category:English logicians]]
[[Category:19th-century English Anglican priests]]
[[Category:Fellows of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Royal Society]]
[[Category:People associated with the University of Hull]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries of London]]
[[Category:People educated at Islington Proprietary School]]
[[Category:19th-century English mathematicians]]