Biographical Encyclopedia of British Idealism

Editor: William Sweet, St Francis Xavier University, Nova Scotia, Canada


The Biographical Encyclopedia of British Idealism will include the principal figures writing on, and responding, to the Idealist movement in Britain. Its focus will be on the idealism of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, but will include major figures of earlier and later idealist schools.
    From the time of the Cambridge Platonists of the seventeenth century, idealism has had a strong presence in the philosophical traditions of Great Britain, and its impact has been felt not only throughout the English-speaking world, but also in countries where intellectual contact with Britain flourished in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Moreover, in recent years, there has been a considerable renewed interest in the British idealists, and many of the ideas once championed by them are being reintroduced and discussed in philosophy and politics.
    No existing biographical encyclopedia focuses on the idealist traditions in Great Britain. While articles on several of the figures included may also be found in the Dictionary of National Biography – though sometimes only in the new Oxford DNB – or in standard philosophical encyclopedias, information on many others is not easily available. This is particularly true concerning those whose most important philosophical work, though inspired by British idealism, had its influence largely outside of the British Isles (e.g., in Canada, Australia, Southern Africa, and Asia – particularly India).
    In addition to entries on the leading representatives of the idealist schools, the Encyclopedia will also include articles on a wide range of less well-known writers, not often included in philosophical encyclopedias or dictionaries. As the editors of the Dictionary of Nineteenth Century Philosophy have noted, the importance of looking at minor figures is now widely accepted by historians of philosophy. Minor figures frequently posed the problems or extended the work of the better-known figures, so that it is often the minor figures who typically represent the breadth and impact of their teachers.
    Idealism had a significant impact on not only philosophers, but political figures, members of the judiciary, educators, social workers, scientists, church leaders and theologians, and missionaries – many of whom were active in the furthest reaches of the British Empire. As appropriate, the Encyclopedia includes a number of these figures to the extent that they made a relevant contribution to the development of philosophy.
    This Encyclopedia will be invaluable for those interested in studying idealism – a tradition often regarded as an aberrant phase in the history of British thought. In particular, late nineteenth and early twentieth-century British Idealism provoked a wide range of attacks and replies from the major figures of the time, such as Henry Sidgwick, John Dewey, F.C.S. Schiller, C.D. Broad, and Bertrand Russell. Yet this Encyclopedia will also be of particular value to those interested in individuals who, while closely connected with British philosophy, had an effect far beyond it.
    The Encyclopedia understands ‘British Idealism’ broadly, and it will serve to illustrate the breadth and diversity of the idealist schools and traditions. Some of the major figures which were associated with British Idealism were Bernard Bosanquet, F.H. Bradley, Edward Caird, R.G. Collingwood, T.H. Green, L.T. Hobhouse, J.M.E. McTaggart, J.H. Muirhead, D.G. Ritchie, and J.H. Stirling. Important critics of idealism, as well as non-British thinkers who made significant contributions to the idealist traditions - such as Brand Blanshard, Benedetto Croce, William James, C.S. Peirce, Josiah Royce and George Santayana - also have entries.
    Contributors whose entries concern ‘respondents’ or critics of idealism, will be asked to concentrate on how these authors criticized or responded to idealist thought.
    While the Encyclopedia focuses on British thought between 1860 and 1930, it will also include figures from earlier idealist traditions - such as the Cambridge Platonists (e.g., Henry More; Ralph Cudworth; Benjamin Whichcote; Peter Sterry; John Smith; Nathaniel Culverwell; John Worthington; George Rust; Anne Conway; and John Norris), George Berkeley, Arthur Collier, S.T. Coleridge, Thomas Carlyle and J.F. Ferrier – and important later contributors such as Michael Oakeshott, A.C. Ewing,  J.N. Findlay, Blanshard, and Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan.   
    The time-period covered in the Encyclopedia is largely unrestricted. It will include those important figures who were engaged in – or engaged in discussion with – idealist philosophy, from the time of its earliest appearance. It will also include some living authors whose contribution to idealist philosophy has been particularly noteworthy.
    In addition to some 200 biographical entries, each containing a critical assessment and bibliography, the Encyclopedia will include lengthy discussions of the background, history and development and influence of British Idealism throughout the world. This will involve treatments of related themes and subjects, including geographical surveys (e.g., “British Idealism in India,” “British Idealism in Canada,”) and analyses of how it related to certain fields or subjects (such as pragmatism and empiricism). These discussions not only set the context, but also signal where British Idealism had an influence and how related contemporary philosophical views relate to it.
    Biographical entries have been written in an accessible style, avoiding unnecessary scholarly terminology, and include:
i) a biographical sketch of the author
ii) an analysis and assessment of his or her doctrines and ideas, with emphasis on the historical context and, where relevant, subsequent influences
iii) a bibliography listing the subject's major and minor philosophical writings and giving a short list to further reading.

1.    Francis E. Abbot

2.    H.B. Acton

3.    A. Aliota

4.    Robert Adamson

5.    Francis Anderson

6.    John Anderson

7.    Samuel Alexander

8.    Mary August Arnold, see Ward, Mrs Humphry

9.    Matthew Arnold

10.    J.B. Baillie

11.    Alexander Bain

12.    A.J. Balfour

13.    G.F. Barbour

14.    (Sir) Ernest Barker

15.    Sidney Ball

16.    Ernest Belfort Bax

17.    George Berkeley

18.    Brand Blanshard

19.    Bernard Bosanquet

20.    Helen Dendy-Bosanquet

21.    W. R. Boyce-Gibson

22.    B. P. Bowne

23.    Archibald Alan Bowman

24.    Andrew Cecil Bradley

25.    F. H. Bradley

26    George Brett

27.    E. S. Brightman

28.    C.D. Broad

29.    Jethro Brown

30.    Robert Browning

31.    Edward Caird

32.    John Caird

33.    Alfred Caldecott

34.    Henry Calderwood

35.    William Caldwell

36.    C. A. Campbell

37.    Thomas Carlyle

38.    Herbert Wildon Carr

39.    Thomas Case

40.    R. W. Church

41.    Samuel Taylor Coleridge

42.    A. Collier

43.    R. G. Collingwood

44.    William Gershom Collingwood

45.    A. Conway

46.    John Cook Wilson

47.    James Edwin Creighton

48.    Benedetto Croce

49.     Ralph Cudworth

50.    N. Culverwel

51.    G. W. Cunningham

52.    J. C.P. d’Andrade

53.    Thomas Davidson

54.    DeBurgh, W.G,

55.    S.W. Dyde

56.    John Dewey

57.    T. S. Eliot

58.    Dorothy Emmet

59.    A. C. Ewing

60.    W.H. Fairbrother

61.    Edward Douglas Fawcett

62.    James Frederick Ferrier

63.    J.N. Findlay

64.    Robert Flint

65.    Mary Parker Follett

66.    T M Forsyth

67.    Michael Foster

68.    Alexander Campbell Fraser

69.    Patrick Geddes

70.    Giovanni Gentile

71.    Katherine Everett Gilbert

72.    Charles Gore

73.    T. H. Green

74.    John Grote

75.    R. B. Haldane

76.    Hiralal Haldar

77.    William Hamilton

78.    Errol E. Harris

79.    W. T. Harris

80.    William Hastie

81.    H. J. W. Hetherington

82.    G. Dawes Hicks

83.    Leonard Trelawney Hobhouse

84.    J Hobson

85.    W. E. Hocking

86.    Shadworth Hodgson

87.    R. F. A. Hoernlé

88.    A.G. (Alfred George) Hogg

89.    Henry Scott Holland

90.    F. Houang

91.    G. H. Howison

92.    J.R. Illingworth

93.    William Ralph Inge

94.    William James

95.    C. E. M. Joad

96.    Harold Henry Joachim

97.    Arthur Johnson

98.    E.E. Constance Jones

99.    Henry Jones

100.    Elijah Jordan

101.    H.W.B.Joseph

102.    Benjamin Jowett

103.    N. Kemp Smith

104.    T.B. Kilpatrick

105.    T.M. Knox

106.  John Laird

107.  George Harry Langley

108.  Harold Laski

109.  John Laird

110.  W.D. Lamont

111.  Robert Latta

112.  S.S.Laurie

113.  Henry Laurie

114.  Joseph Alexander Leighton

115.    R. Le Senne

116.   G.H. Lewes

117.    A.D. Lindsay

118.    Rupert Lodge

119.    Arthur Ritchie Lord

120.    Rudolf Hermann Lotze

121.    Thomas Loveday

122.    M. MacCallum

123.    J. MacCunn

124.    W[illiam] A[llison] Macfadyen

125.    E. B. McGilvary

126.    R. M. MacIver

127.    J. S. Mackenzie

128.    Hettie M. Mackenzie

129.    John McKenzie

130.    D.M MacKinnon

131.    J. M. E. McTaggart

132.    G.R. Malkani

133.    Henry Longueville Mansel

134.    James Martineau

135.    Frederick D. Maurice

136.    John Theodore Merz

137.    William Mitchell

138.    A. J. M. Milne

139.    G.E. Moore

140.     Henry More

141.    C.R.Morris

142.    George S. Morris

143.    William Morris

144.    J. H. Muirhead

145.    A. C. Mukerji

146.    Andrew H. Murray

147.    G. R. G. Mure

148.    Gilbert Murray

149.    John Clark Murray

150.    R. L. Nettleship

151.    John Norris

152.    Michael Oakeshott

153.    G. Herbert Palmer

154.    Mark Pattison

155.    C.S. Peirce

156.    Ralph Barton Perry

157.    J.P.Plamenatz

158.    Potter, Beatrice, see Webb, Martha Beatrice

159.    H.A. Prichard

160.    Jean Pucelle

161.    Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan

162.     P.T. Raju

163.     H. Rashdall

164.    Nicholas Rescher

165.    Hugh Adam Reyburn

166.    A.D. Ritchie

167.    D. G. Ritchie

168.    A. K. Rogers

169.    W.D.Ross

170.    Josiah Royce

171.    John Ruskin

172.    Bertrand Arthur William Russell

173.    George Rust

174.    G. H. Sabine

175.    George Santayana

176.    Ferdinand Canning Scott Schiller

177.    J. G. Schurman

178.   Brajendranath Seal

179.    A. Seth Pringle Pattison

180.    J. Seth

181.    Alfred Sidgwick

182.    Henry Sidgwick

183.    May Sinclair

184.     J.A. Smith

185.    John Smith

186.    J. C. Smuts

187.    W. R. Sorley

188.    Herbert Spencer

189.    Timothy Sprigge

190.    Peter Sterry

191.    James Hutchinson Stirling

192.    G.F.Stout

193.    Henry Cecil Sturt

194.    A. E. Taylor

195.    William Temple

196.    A. Toynbee

197.    W.S. Urquhart

198.    Jean Wahl

199.    Vivekananda (Narendranath Dutta)

200.  Thomas Walker

201.    William Wallace

202.    A.R. Wadia

203.    James Ward

204.    W. H. Walsh

205.    John Watson

206.    C. C. J. Webb

      .    Martha Beatrice Webb

207.    Sydney Webb

208.    Alban Gregory Widgery

209.    J. Cook Wilson

210.    Ludwig Wittgenstein

211.     Benjamin Whichcote

212.     John Worthington

Tentative List of Thematic Entries

2. The Influences of British Idealism in Australia and New Zealand

3. The Influences of British Idealism in Canada and the United States

4. The Influences of British Idealism in India and East Asia

5. The Influences of British Idealism in Southern Africa