You're Here:
Home > Chapter 1 > Section 1.1
Below, I’ll briefly discuss a number of important philosophers among the British Idealist movement. This is not to imply that these are all the philosophers which could be counted among this movement – there are many, and there are much more closely related. In my discussion on philosophical themes I’ll most focus on the philosophers discussed below.
Select a philosopher:
Edward Caird was born in Greenoc, Scotland in 1835. He was a younger brother of theologian John Caird (1820-1898). He and his brothers were raised by an aunt after the death of their father in 1838.
Edward Caird began his education at Greenock Academy and started at the University of Glasgow in 1850 to study arts and divinity, but he later moved to Balliol College (Oxford), where he became friends with later fellow Idealist T.H. Green. He was a member of the radical society “Old Mortality Club”. Caird graduated from Balliol in 1863. Then, he became a tutor at Merton College (Oxford), which he remained till 1866, when he left to become a Professor of Moral Philosophy at Glasgow. There, he was active in university and local politics and established the study of political science at the university. After Benjamin Jowett’s death in 1893, Caird returned to Oxford to become Master of Balliol College, which he stayed till 1907. He died the following year, on November 1, 1908.
Caird’s political ideas, like T.H. Green’s, are liberal and progressive. Caird supported education for women and was against the Anglo-Boer Wars of 1899 to 1902. He was involved in the “university settlement” programmes, which aimed to narrow the gap between the social classes by having recent graduates and professors work and live among and with poor people.
Thomas Hill Green was born on April 8, 1836 in Birkin, a tiny village in Yorkshire, where his father was a rector. ON the paternal side, Green is descended from Oliver Cromwell. Thomas and his brothers and sisters were raised by a nanny after his mother’s death when Thomas was a year old.
Thomas received his early education from his father, and entered his first school at Rugby School in 1850. During his youth, Green was already serious and involved with philosophy, although his academic performance at Rugby was poor.
Green entered Balliol College in Oxford in 1855, where he came under the influence of Benjamin Jowett, who was one of the first to bring some of Hegel’s philosophy to England. Green was also, mostly close to the end of his undergraduate years, influenced by the philosophy of Fichte. He became friends with other students that shared his ideas (that are non-traditional in Britain), such as Edward Caird (see below), A.V. Dicey and John Nichol. He soon became an active member of the Old Mortality Club, a radical university society founded by Nichol. Green earned a second class in Classical Moderations in 1857, a first in Literae Humaniores and a third in law and modern history in 1859. Green was made a college fellow in 1860, after having lectured in ancient and modern history before. In 1865 and 1866, Green worked as an assistant commissioner with the Schools Inquiry Commission, but thereafter he returned to academic life at Balliol. In 1866 Green was appointed to a Balliol tutorship, and in 1878 he became Whyte’s Professor of Moral Philosophy. Throughout his time as a lecturer, he taught many undergraduates who’d later become famous, such as Bernard Bosanquet, F.H. Bradley, R.L. Nettleship and Henry Scott Holland. (For Bosanquet and Bradley, see below.) Green married Charlotte Byron Symonds in 1871.
In 1866, Green had his first significant article, “The Philosophy of Aristotle” published, which marked the beginning of a large contribution of Hegelian works.
Green was actively involved in local politics. He for instance campaigned at his university to get access for women and was a member of temperance societies and the local Liberal Association. In this context, Green gave his famous statement “On Liberal Legislation and Freedom of Contract” in 1881. At a high point in his academic and intellectual career, Green died of blood poisoning in 1882.
Francis Herbert Bradley was born in Clapham (then in Surrey, now part of London) on January 30, 1846. He was the fourth child and oldest surviving son of Charles Bradley, a well-known Evangelical preacher. His family was talented, including a younger son, A.C. Bradley, who taught philosophy and literary studies and held chairs at Oxford Westminster Abbey A.C., Liverpool and Glasgow and was the most famous Shakespearean critic of his time. Charles Bradley’s “Clapham Sect”, as the actively evangelical humanitarian group was called, had a number of influential members (eg. a Governor-General of Bengal, a Governor of Sierra Leone and several members of Parliament).
F.H. Bradley’s schooling started in 1856 at Cheltenham College, where he learnt some German. It is thought that he read some of Kant’s “Critique of Pure Reason” while still in school, but it’s unknown whether this was in the original language. In 1861, F.H. Bradley was transferred to Marlborough College. In the winter of 1862-63, he contracted typhoid fever and pneumonia, which both nearly killed him. But after surviving these illnesses, he did quit Marlborough College.
In 1865, Bradley entered University College at Oxford as a Scholar. In 1867, he earned a first in classical moderations and in 1869 a second in Literae Humaniores. After several unsuccessful attempts at obtaining a college fellowship, he was elected to one in 1870 at Merton College (Oxford). With this college fellowship, he would’ve no teaching duties and it would only be terminable upon marriage. Bradley, however, never married and remained in his fellowship till his death.
In 1870, Bradley suffered a kidney disease, which probably has had lasting effects on him, for he was often incapacitated by illnesses and lived a fairly retired life. He was active in his college, but never attended public occasions. Bradley devoted much of his life to his philosophy, but that doesn’t mean his life was only a “bookish” existence. In fact, Bradley often left Oxford during the winter months to go to southern England and the Mediterranean areas, where the weather’s better. His writings are a mixture of the rational and the mystical, preserving enough room for emotions and sensations.
Bradley’s political ideas, as opposed to Green’s, are thought to have been conservative. His writings include religious features, but Bradley appeared to have found his evangelical upbringing to be oppressive, and that reflects itself in his criticism on Christianity.
In 1924, Bradley died after a short illness. He’s buried in Holywell Cemetery in Oxford.
Bernard Bosanquet was born in Alnwick, Northumberland in 1848, and died in 1923 in London. He was the youngest son of the Reverend Robert William Bosanquet and his second wife.
From 1862 to 1867, Bosanquet studied at Harrow College, but he transferred to Balliol College, where he studied until 1870. Here, he was influenced by such philosophers as T.H. Green and Edward Caird. He earned honours in classical moderations and Literae Humaniores. Bosanquet was made a fellow at Univeristy College, Oxford, in 1870. He tutored here until 1881, when he moved to London. In London, he was actively involved in social work and adult education through charitable organisations. In this time, he also met and married, in 1895, Helen Dendy, an activist in social work and social reform, who later was a leading figure in the Royal Commission on the Poor Laws (1905-1909). Most of Bosanquet’s major writings date from his London time.
From 1903 to 1908, Bosanquet briefly returned to his vocation as a Professor at the University of St Andrews (Scotland), where he taught Moral Philosophy. However, because he was in poor health and wanted to devote more time to original philosophical writing, he retired and went to Oxshott (Surrey). He nevertheless remained active in social work and philosophical circles.
Bosanquet was made a Fellow in the British Academy in 1907 and earned Honorary Degrees from Glasgow, Birmingham, Durham and St Andrews. At the time of his death in 1923, Bosanquet can be considered the most popular among the British Idealists.
J.M.E. (John McTaggart Ellis) McTaggart was born in 1866 in London. He began his studies at Clifton College (1882-1885) and then entered Trinity College, Cambridge. In 1891, he was elected a fellowship at Trinity. His fellowship thesis later became the first four chapters of Studies in the Hegelian Dialectic (1896). In 1897, he became a college lecturer, which he remained till 1922. He was also elected a Fellow of the British Academy. In 1925, McTaggart died in London.
Robin George Collingwood was born in 1889 in Cartmel Fell, Lancashire. He was educated at home until he was 13, and was deeply influenced by his father, who was a painter and archaeologist. After his homeschooling, Collingwood entered Rugby College and in 1908 started his studies at Oxford. In 1912, Collingwood was elected tutor in philosophy, which he remained until his retirement in 1941.
Between 1911 and 1934, Collingwood concentrated on archaeological studies which made him the leading authority on Roman Britain of his day. (18) In the same period, Collingwood’s philosophical thought developed greatly. Collingwood is well-known for his philosophical approach to history, (see 1.2).
After his parents, his schooling at St. George School in Harpenden, which he attended from the age of 11 on, had a great influence on Michael Oakeshott. The school’s founder and headmaster was a socialist, an admirer of Maria Montessori and had a critical view on religion. He used to devote his sermons to such things as Kant’s Categorical Imperative and instructed 15-year-olds in Hegel’s philosophy. Some students resented the way the headmaster influenced the school, but Oakeshott seems to have been pretty happy with it. (43)
After St. George, Oakeshott went to Cambridge to attend Caius College in 1919, taking a History of Political Thought class (31). He also attended an introduction to philosophy, given by McTaggart. This was much of his only formal introduction to the subject.
In the 1920s, Oakeshott visited Marburg and Tübingen (Germany) a couple of times, where he got into contact with Heidegger and read Nietzsche, Hörderling and Burckhardt. He also got involved with an informal German student movement, which was a component of Weimar-German romanticism (31).
During the Second World War, Oakeshott was on service on an Intelligence called Phantom, where he made it to unit Adjutant in Holland. One of his fellow soldiers, according to a Michael Oakeshott Association biographical page (43), was also educated at Cambridge and tried to show off his knowledge, not knowing that Oakeshott had already written a classic book.
After World War II, Oakeshott lectured again. He also wrote essays and books on mostly conservative politics, famous being his Rationalism in Politics (1962).
Oakeshott is counted among the Idealists and is greatly influenced by Bradley, but he criticised his view that the world can be reduced to a unitary absolute. (32)