The focus of this workshop will be on contributions of the
late 19th and early 20th century British Idealists to moral and social
theory and practice. Among the authors who will be discussed are T.H.
Green, F.H. Bradley, Bernard Bosanquet, D.G. Ritchie, Henry Jones, E.
Caird, J.M.E. McTaggart, A.S. Pringle-Pattison, J.S. Mackenzie, R.B.
Haldane, Michael Oakeshott, RG Collingwood, John Watson, and RFA
Hoernle.
The British idealists are well
known for their contributions to metaphysics, logic, and political
philosophy. Nevertheless, idealists also made important contributions
to practical issues of social and public policy and to social
philosophy, and some provided sophisticated accounts of moral
philosophy and moral education. While their views in these areas cannot
be entirely separated from their other work, there is reason to think
that what the British Idealists had to say on moral and social
philosophy and social policy is not only important in its own right
(within the history of ideas), but bears on contemporary discussion of
applied and practical ethics.
The proposed workshop will serve,
then, as a survey of the British Idealist approaches to moral and
social philosophy, as a study of a number of figures (some of whom
remain relatively little known today), and as a review of some
perspectives that are relevant to moral philosophy and social practice
today. While many papers in the workshop will be on figures of the
first two generations of idealism in Britain, attention will also be
paid to 'later' idealists and to those influenced by them in Canada,
the United States, in South Africa, Australia, and India. This will
also provide a basis from which to assess the contribution of idealism
to later moral and social thought.
Further Information:
Professor William Sweet,
Principal Organiser, ISSEI Workshop on British Idealism,
Department of Philosophy, St Francis Xavier University,
Antigonish, NS B2G 2W5
Fax 902 867 3243; office telephone 902 867 2341; e-mail: wsweet@stfx.ca
For information on registration and
accommodation, click
here.
