Table Of ContentIDEALISM
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IDEALISM
The History of a Philosophy
Jeremy Dunham, Iain Hamilton Grant and Sean Watson
Routledge
Taylor & Francis Group
LONDON AND NEW YORK
First published 2011 by Acumen
Published 2014 by Routledge
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group,
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© 2011 Jeremy Dunham, Iain Hamilton Grant and Sean Watson
Th is book is copyright under the Berne Convention.
No reproduction without permission.
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isbn: 978- 1- 84465- 240- 2 (hardcover)
isbn: 978- 1- 84465- 241- 9 (paperback)
British Library Cataloguing- in- Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available
from the British Library.
CONTENTS
Acknowledgements vii
Note on the text viii
Abbreviations ix
Introduction 1
I Ancient idealism
1. Parmenides and the birth of ancient idealism 10
2. Plato and Neoplatonism 19
II Idealism and early modern philosophy
3. Phenomenalism and idealism I: Descartes and Malebranche 34
4. Phenomenalism and idealism II: Leibniz and Berkeley 59
III German idealism
5. Immanuel Kant: cognition, freedom and teleology 89
6. Fichte and the system of freedom 116
7. Idealist philosophy of nature: F. W. J Schelling 129
8. Hegel and Hegelianism: mind, nature and logic 144
IV British idealism
9. British absolute idealism: from Green to Bradley 159
10. Personal idealism: from Ward to McTaggart 175
11. Naturalist idealism: Bernard Bosanquet 190
12. Criticisms and persistent misconceptions of idealism 201
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CONTENTS
13. Actual occasions and eternal objects: the process metaphysics
of Alfred North Whitehead 210
V Contemporary idealisms
14. Self- organization: the idea in late- twentieth- century science 223
15. Contemporary philosophical idealism 256
Notes 299
Bibliography 312
Index 327
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I owe an enormous debt of gratitude to a great number of staff working at the
University of the West of England who have, both during my undergraduate
and graduate study, helped and inspired me beyond measure; in particular Iain
Hamilton Grant, Dave Green, Peter Jowers, John Sellars and Sean Watson. I
must dedicate an extra special thanks to Hamid Danesh and Georgina Oliver
at Human Rights Aid, and Alison Assiter and Havi Carel, without whose help
and support I would have been unable to complete the work on this book.
Finally I want to express my great gratitude to my family and Stephanie Allan
for their unconditional love and support. Jeremy Dunham
I would like to thank my colleagues Alison Assiter, Havi Carel, Jeremy Dunham,
Darian Meacham, John Sellars and Sean Watson of the University of the West
of England for their inspiring presence. Tristan Palmer is due all our gratitude
for his patience and encouragement throughout this project. Finally, I would
like to off er belated gratitude to Karin Littau for putting up with my absence
for so long during the preparation of this book and to Graham Harman for
blogging intensively about it. Iain Hamilton Grant
I would like to thank my colleagues Jeremy Dunham, Iain Hamilton Grant
and Peter Jowers for the many inspirational hours that we have spent together
discussing the contents of this book. Two other colleagues, Alison Assiter and
Lita Crociani-W indland, have off ered thoughts and comments on this work,
for which I am grateful. Finally I would like to thank Lorraine Kirby, whose
support and patience have made my contribution to this project possible.
Sean Watson
We would like to dedicate this book to our former colleague Peter Jowers
(Rieupeyroux) whose infl uence on this book was felt yet missed throughout.
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NOTE ON THE TEXT
Many and various rules for the capitalization of important terms are adopted
in translating and writing works of philosophy. We have adopted the practice
of capitalizing where a work or author being cited would or does capitalize
(as in Hegel or Bradley, for example). Th ere are two major exceptions to this
rule: the term “Absolute” is so prone to being read adjectivally that we have
capitalized all its substantive uses throughout; similarly, references to the
“Idea” in the overtly Platonic sense are capitalized in order to avoid assimilat-
ing it too easily to everyday usages and understandings. Why this is so will
become clear in the text.
ABBREVIATIONS
A L eibniz, Sämtliche Schriften und Briefe (1923– ). Cited by series, volume and
page number.
Ak. Immanuel Kants gesammelte Schriften (1902). Cited by volume number (in
roman numerals).
AG Leibniz, Philosophical Essays (1989a).
AT Descartes, Oeuvres de Descartes (1974–89). Cited by volume and page number.
CA Leibniz, Th e Leibniz–Arnauld Correspondence (1967). Page references refer to
the Die Philosophischen Schriften (1875–90), vol. 2, which are cited alongside the
translation in Mason’s edition.
CDB Leibniz, Th e Leibniz–Des Bosses Correspondence (2007). Th e original Latin is
printed on the page facing the translation.
CP Leibniz, Confessio Philosophi: Papers Concerning the Problem of Evil (2005).
CPR Kant, Critique of Pure Reason (1929). Cited by A/B editions.
CSM Descartes, Th e Philosophical Writings of Descartes (1984–91). Cited by volume
and page number.
DMR Malebranche, Dialogues on Metaphysics and on Religion (1997b).
DSR Leibniz, De Summa Rerum: Metaphysical Papers, 1675–1676 (1992b).
E Leibniz, Opera Philosophicae quae exstant Latina, Gallica, Germanica omnia
(1839–40).
ET Proclus, Th e Elements of Th eology (1963).
G Leibniz, Die Philosophischen Schriften (1875–90). Cited by volume and page
number.
GA Fichte, Gesamstausgabe der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften (1976– ).
Cited by series, volume and page number.
GBW Berkeley, Th e Works of George Berkeley Bishop of Cloyne (1948–57).
GM Leibniz, Mathematische Schriften (1848–63). Cited by volume and page number.
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