F. H. Bradley
| Western Philosophy 19th-century philosophy | |
|---|---|
| Name: Francis Herbert (F.H.) Bradley | |
| Birth: January 30, 1846 | |
| Death: September 18, 1924 | |
| School/tradition: British idealism | |
| Main interests | |
| Metaphysics, Ethics, Philosophy of history, Logic | |
| Notable ideas | |
| Influences | Influenced |
| Immanuel Kant, Johann Gottlieb Fichte, Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von Schelling, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Thomas Hill Green | G. E. Moore, Bertrand Russell, A. J. Ayer, Robin George Collingwood |
Francis Herbert Bradley (30 January, 1846 – 18 September, 1924) was a British idealist philosopher.
Life
He was born at Clapham, Surrey, England (now part of the Greater London area). He was the child of Charles Bradley, an evangelical preacher, and Emma Linton, Charles's second wife. He was educated at Cheltenham College and Marlborough College, before he entered the University College, Oxford in 1865. In 1870, he was elected to a fellowship at Oxford's Merton College where he remained until his death in 1924. He is buried in Holywell Cemetery in Oxford.
Bradley rejected the utilitarian and empiricist trends in English philosophy represented by John Locke, David Hume, and John Stuart Mill. Instead, Bradley was a leading member of the philosophical movement known as British idealism, which was strongly influenced by Immanuel Kant and the German idealists, Johann Fichte, Friedrich Shelling, and G.W.F. Hegel, although Bradley tended to downplay his influences.
During his life, Bradley was one of the most respected philosophers on the British Isles and was granted honourary degrees many times. He was the first British philosopher to be awarded the Order of Merit. His fellowship at Merton College, did not carry any teaching assignments and thus he was free to continue to write. He was famous for his pluralistic approach to philosophy. His pluralistic outlook saw a unity transcending divisions between the philosophy of ethics, history, logic, epistemology, metaphysics and psychology.
However, Bradley's philosophical reputation declined greatly after his death. British idealism was attacked by G.E. Moore and Bertrand Russell. Bradley was also famously criticised in Alfred Jules Ayer's logical empiricist work, Language, Truth and Logic, for making statements that do not meet the requirements of positivist verification principle, e.g. statements such as "The Absolute enters into, but is itself incapable of, evolution."
Philosophy
One characteristic of Bradley's philosophical approach is his technique of distinguishing ambiguity within language, especially within individual words. This technique might be seen as anticipatory of later advances in the philosophy of language.
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Trivia
- The literary scholar A. C. Bradley was his younger brother.
- The poet T. S. Eliot wrote a Harvard Ph.D. thesis on Bradley's work but was never granted the degree.
External links
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