John Cook Wilson FBA (6 June 1849 – 11 August 1915) was an English philosopher, Wykeham Professor of Logic and Fellow of New College.

[3] After studying at Derby Grammar School, 1862–67, Cook Wilson went up with a scholarship to Balliol College[4] in 1868, where he read both Classics under H. W. Chandler and Mathematics under H. J. S.

In his inaugural lecture, On an Evolutionist Theory of the Axioms (a critique of Herbert Spencer's philosophy published in 1889), he acknowledged his intellectual debt to Green and Lotze.

His posthumous collected papers, Statement and Inference (a defence of direct realism),[7] were influential on a generation of Oxford philosophers, including H. H. Price and Gilbert Ryle.

[9] Cook Wilson's most important extra-curricular activity was the development of tactics for military bicycle units to which he also devoted some publications and the Army Cyclist Corps which was formed at his suggestion.