Skip to main content

Research Repository

Advanced Search

British Idealism

Abstract

This chapter identifies some themes in British idealism, especially those which resonate in contemporary debates, through an examination of T.H. Green, F.H. Bradley and J.M.E. McTaggart. It focuses primarily on metaphysics and epistemology, supplemented by discussion of the ethics of Green and Bradley. In characterizing British idealism in more detail, it is important to start with T.H. Green, whose importance lay both in his philosophical thought, and also in his active engagement with Oxford local politics, educational standards and school reform, and issues of social justice, the common good and the recognition theory of rights. Green's major philosophical monograph, published posthumously in 1883, was Prolegomena to Ethics. This can be seen as a broadly Kantian account of the presuppositions of knowledge. The two main claims that concern us here are, first, that the real consists in relations and, secondly, that the related whole constitutes an “eternal consciousness”.

Acceptance Date Apr 13, 2018
Online Publication Date Apr 2, 2019
Publicly Available Date Mar 28, 2024
Publisher Wiley
Pages 365-388
Book Title A Companion to 19th Century Philosophy
Chapter Number 14
ISBN 9781119210023
DOI https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119210054.ch14