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A History of Cambridge Idealism

Reception, Influence, and Legacy

A History of Cambridge Idealism cover

A History of Cambridge Idealism

Reception, Influence, and Legacy

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Description

A History of Cambridge Idealism fills a gap in the history of modern philosophy. Focused on Trinity College between the turn of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century, it offers the first-ever account of philosophical idealism at Cambridge. From wholehearted acceptance to outright rejection, it explores the various kinds of interactions philosophers had with idealism, covering key aspects of this tradition's introduction, reception, influence, and legacy.

What emerges is a surprising lineage of both forgotten and world-renowned philosophers, including Coleridge, Whewell, Grote, Sidgwick, Ward and Stout as well as McTaggart, Moore, Russell, C.D. Broad, Wittgenstein and Oakeshott. Some of the chapters put long-neglected figures back on the intellectual map, adding to recent efforts to broaden the philosophical canon. Other chapters present original accounts of more well-known names, offering fresh interpretations that situate their work and ideas within the philosophical climate of their alma mater and beyond.

Taken together, this collection brings together an exciting team of scholars to present a rich, detailed picture of Cambridge philosophy, taking the study of British Idealism beyond its traditional focus as well as providing new insights into the historical roots of analytical philosophy.

Table of Contents

Introduction: The Challenge of Idealism
Lukas M. Verburgt

PART I: THE NINETEENTH CENTURY
1. The Reception of German Idealism at Trinity, 1804-1850
Giles Whiteley
2. Julius Hare, Connop Thirlwall and F.D. Maurice
William Ashworth
3. Whewell's Creative Adaptation of Kant's Idealism
Andrew Cooper
4. John Grote: Trinity Idealist
John R. Gibbins
5. Cambridge Critique of Empiricism: From De Morgan and
Ellis to Venn and Balfour
Lukas M. Verburgt
6. What Did Henry Sidgwick Think of Idealism? The Case of T.H. Green
Bart Schultz
7. Alfred Marshall's Eclectic Idealism
Marco Dardi
8. Rethinking Nature: James Ward's Pluralistic Idealism
William Sweet
9. W.R. Sorley on Morality, Necessity, and Mysticism
Oliver Spinney
10. G.F. Stout
Fraser MacBride

PART II: TURN OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

11. 'Loving Spirits': The Idealism of J.M.E. McTaggart
James Connelly
12. Moore's Idealism Before and After 1899
Consuelo Preti
13. Russell on the Philosophical and the Mathematical from The Foundations of Geometry to The Principles of Mathematics
Sean Morris
14. Moore's 'Refutation of Idealism' versus Ward and Stout; and Russell on Acquaintance
James Levine

PART III: EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURY

15. Idealism in Wittgenstein's Tractatus
Michael Potter
16. Whitehead's Philosophy of Organism: Turning Idealism Inside Out
Matthew David Segall
17. Cambridge Philosophers on McTaggart's Paradox: C.D. Broad, J.S. Mackenzie, L.S. Stebbing and R.B. Braithwaite
R.D. Ingthorsson
18. Idealism in Wittgenstein's Later Philosophy
David Cerbone

PART IV: EPILOGUE
19. The Afterlife of Idealism in Michael Oakeshott's Philosophy of History
Giuseppina D'Oro
Index

Product details

Bloomsbury Academic Test
Published Mar 18 2027
Format Hardback
Edition 1st
Pages 352
ISBN 9781350376359
Imprint Bloomsbury Academic
Dimensions 244 x 169 mm
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing

About the contributors

Anthology Editor

Lukas M. Verburgt

Lukas M. Verburgt is Gerda Henkel Stiftung Researc…

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