Early Responses to British Idealism

British Idealism has sometimes been regarded as an aberrant phase in the history of late 19th- and early 20th-century philosophy. Yet it had a profound impact on philosophy and culture throughout the (then) British Empire, on politics, nationally and internationally particularly on such figures as the President of India, Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, the Prime Minister of South Africa, J.C. Smuts and a number of lesser known figures in Canada, the United States, Australia and Asia and on social and public policy in Britain and its dependencies. The British Idealists sought to articulate a distinctive alternative to the then-dominant empiricism and materialism of Hume, Bentham, Mill, Bain and others, by drawing on insights from classical Greek philosophy and the German philosophy of Kant and Hegel. It is no coincidence today, when much philosophy reflects a similar empiricist and materialist character, that many of the insights found in idealism are being reintroduced and discussed. This three-volume set gathers responses to the major writings of the leading figures of the British idealist movement, almost all published during their lifetimes.
The collection covers a wide range of the replies that the idealists provoked, including contributions by Henry Sidgwick, Bertrand Russell, John Dewey, Josiah Royce, Sir Ernest Barker, J.H. Muirhead, Sir Henry Jones, C.D. Broad, John Watson, R.F.A. Hoernle, Andrew Seth (Pringle Pattison), McTaggart, F.C.S. Schiller, J.S. MacKenzie, Brand Blanshard and others.