British idealism was a philosophical movement that was influential in Britain during the mid to late nineteenth century and the early twentieth century. The leading figures in the movement were T.H. Green (1836-1882), F.H. Bradley (1846-1924), and Bernard Bosanquet (1848-1923). They were succeeded by the second generation of J. M. E. McTaggart, H. H. Joachim, J. H. Muirhead, and G. R. G. Mure. The doctrines of British idealism so provoked the young Cambridge philosophers G. E. Moore and Bertrand Russell that they gave birth to analytic philosophy. Alternative meaning: Nineteenth Century (periodical) (18th century — 19th century — 20th century — more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 19th century was that century which lasted from 1801-1900 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar. ... (19th century - 20th century - 21st century - more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s The 20th century lasted from 1901 to 2000 in the Gregorian calendar (often from (1900 to 1999 in common usage). ... Thomas Hill Green (April 7, 1836 - March 26, 1882) was an English philosopher, political radical and temperance reformer, and a member of the British idealism movement. ... Francis Herbert Bradley (30 January 1846 - 18 September 1924) was a British philosopher. ... Bernard Bosanquet (July 14, 1848, Alnwick, Northumberland, England – February 8, 1923, London) was one of the chief philosophers in England who helped revive the idealism of G.W.F. Hegel. ... John McTaggart Ellis McTaggart (1866-1925) was the leading Hegel scholar in England at the beginning of the 20th Century, and friend and teacher of Bertrand Russell and G. E. Moore. ... John Henry Muirhead (April 28, 1855 - May 24, 1940) was a British philosopher best known for having initiated the Muirhead Library of Philosophy in 1890. ... George Edward Moore George Edward Moore, also known as G.E. Moore, (November 4, 1873 - October 24, 1958) was a distinguished and hugely influential English philosopher who was educated and taught at the University of Cambridge. ... The Right Honourable Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, OM, FRS (18 May 1872 – 2 February 1970), was an influential British logician, philosopher, and mathematician, working mostly in the 20th century. ... Analytic philosophy is the dominant philosophical movement in University philosophy departments in English-speaking countries, although one of its founders, Gottlob Frege, was German, and many of its leading proponents, such as Ludwig Wittgenstein, Rudolf Carnap, Kurt Gödel and Karl Popper, were Austrian. ...

Though much more variegated than some commentaries would seem to suggest, British idealism was generally marked by several broad tendencies: a belief in an Absolute (a single all-encompassing reality that in some sense formed a coherent and all-inclusive system); the assignment of a high place to reason as both the faculty by which the Absolute's structure is grasped and as that structure itself; and a fundamental unwillingness to accept a dichotomy between thought and object, reality consisting of thought-and-object together in a strongly coherent unity. The Absolute is the totality of things, all that is, whether it has been discovered or not. ... Reason is a term used in philosophy and other human sciences to refer to the higher cognitive faculties of the human mind. ...

In some sense this movement was a development of the German Idealist movement -- particularly such philosophers as Immanuel Kant and G.W.F. Hegel, who were characterised by Green, among others, as the salvation of British philosophy after the alleged demise of empiricism. The movement was certainly a reaction against the thinking of John Locke, David Hume, John Stuart Mill, Henry Sidgwick, and other utilitarians. Some of those involved would have denied any specific influence, particularly in respect of Hegel. Nevertheless, James Hutchison Stirling's book The Secret of Hegel is believed to have won significant converts in Britain. German idealism was a philosophical movement in Germany in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. ... It has been suggested that Kantianism be merged into this article or section. ... Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (August 27, 1770 - November 14, 1831) was a German philosopher born in Stuttgart, Württemberg, in present-day southwest Germany. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... John Locke (August 29, 1632–October 28, 1704) was a 17th-century English philosopher. ... David Hume (April 26, 1711 – August 25, 1776*) was a Scottish philosopher and historian. ... John Stuart Mill (May 20, 1806 – May 8, 1873), an English philosopher and political economist, was an influential azmat classical liberal thinker of the 19th century. ... Henry Sidgwick Henry Sidgwick (May 31, 1838–August 28, 1900) was an English philosopher. ... This article does not cite its references or sources. ... James Hutchison Stirling (1820 - 1909), philosopher, born in Glasgow, and educated there and at Edinburgh, where he studied medicine, which he practised until the death of his father in 1851, after which he devoted himself to philosophy. ... The Secret of Hegel: Being the Hegelian System in Origin Principle, Form and Matter (Reprints in Philosophy) by James Hutchison Stirling 2nd Revision edition (June 1901) ISBN 0697000583 An important work which influenced many British philosophers and helped to create the movement known as British idealism. ...

Certainly British idealism was influenced by Hegel at least in broad outline, and undeniably adopted some of his terminology and doctrines. Examples include not only the aforementioned Absolute, but also a doctrine of internal relations, a coherence theory of truth, and a concept of a concrete universal. Some commentators have also pointed to a sort of dialectical structure in e.g. some of the writings of Bradley. But none of the British idealists adopted Hegel's philosophy wholesale, and his most significant writings on logic seem to have found no purchase whatsoever in their thought (nor in British thought generally). ... Universals (used as a noun) are either properties, relations, or types, but not classes. ... Logic, from Classical Greek λόγος (logos), originally meaning the word, or what is spoken, (but coming to mean thought or reason) is most often said to be the study of arguments, although the exact definition of logic is a matter of controversy among philosophers. ...

On its political side, the British idealists were largely concerned to refute what they regarded as a brittle and "atomistic" form of individualism, as espoused by e.g. Herbert Spencer. In their view, humans are fundamentally social beings in a manner and to a degree not adequately recognized by Spencer and his followers. The British idealists did not, however, reify the State in the manner that Hegel apparently did; Green in particular spoke of the individual as the sole locus of value and contended that the State's existence was justified only insofar as it contributed to the realization of value in the lives of individual persons. Individualism is a moral, political, and social philosophy, which emphasizes individual liberty, belief in the primary importance of the individual, and in the virtues of self-reliance and personal independence. Individualism embraces opposition to authority, and to all manner of controls over the individual, especially when exercised by the political... Herbert Spencer. ...

The hold of British idealism in the UK weakened when Bertrand Russell and G.E. Moore turned against it, and their education in the tradition. At that point British philosophy in general revolted once more against metaphysics in general. The later work of R.G. Collingwood was a turning back, if relatively isolated. Among present-day UK philosophers the best-known exponent of absolute idealism is probably Timothy L.S. Sprigge. The Right Honourable Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, OM, FRS (18 May 1872 – 2 February 1970), was an influential British logician, philosopher, and mathematician, working mostly in the 20th century. ... George Edward Moore George Edward Moore, also known as G.E. Moore, (November 4, 1873 - October 24, 1958) was a distinguished and hugely influential English philosopher who was educated and taught at the University of Cambridge. ... Metaphysics (Greek words meta = after/beyond and physics = nature) is a branch of philosophy concerned with the study of first principles and being (ontology). ... Robin George Collingwood (February 22, 1889 - January 9, 1943), British philosopher and historian. ... Timothy L.S. Sprigge (1932- ) is a British idealist philosopher who has spent most of his career at the University of Edinburgh. ...

British idealism's influence in the United States was somewhat limited. The early thought of Josiah Royce had something of a neo-Hegelian cast, as did that of a handful of his less famous contemporaries. American rationalist Brand Blanshard was so strongly influenced by Bradley, Bosanquet, and Green (and other British philosophers) that he could almost be classified as a British philosopher himself. Even this limited influence, though, did not last out the twentieth century. Josiah Royce (November 20, 1855, Grass Valley, California. ... Percy Brand Blanshard (August 27, 1892, Fredericksburg, Ohio – 1987) was an American philosopher known primarily for his defense of reason. ... (19th century - 20th century - 21st century - more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s The 20th century lasted from 1901 to 2000 in the Gregorian calendar (often from (1900 to 1999 in common usage). ...

Reference

• William Ritchie Sorley, A History of British Philosophy to 1900, is an idiosyncratic account of the British tradition centred in British Idealism, first published 1920 as A History of English Philosophy