F. H. Bradley and the History of Philosophy - (New Perspectives in Ontology) by Ben Woodard (Hardcover)

About the Book

Revitalises F. H. Bradley, providing an in-depth analysis of a rich philosophy that infuses everyday experience with the intricacies of idealism.

Book Synopsis

F. H. Bradley, an exemplar of British Idealism, offered a rich strain of idealism that has been unduly neglected for almost a century. Beyond idealism's reputation as mere fanciful speculation, Bradley's work plumbs the everyday difficulties of thinking a world infused with feeling, of a world that never divides into easily rational fragments. For Bradley, our inner lives and our outer lived experience entangle and pollute one another - a mess that requires collective dialectical thinking to unravel.

This book engages with Bradley's central problem, of how to think the gap between one's experience and the structure of reality on which it is founded, as one that still haunts contemporary philosophy. Not only was this pivotal to the post-Continental philosophy of the 2000s but it also remains extremely relevant for renewed interest in Spinoza and Hegel as well as for how contemporary analytic philosophy defines itself with and against metaphysics.

Review Quotes

F.H. Bradley and the History of Philosophy is more than just a rescue-attempt of an underappreciated philosopher; it is more than just a demolition-job on the (absurd) analytic-continental divide; it is a creative, cogent interrogation of our intellectual traditions and habits in the name of collectives, paracoherent logics, non-standard compositions and, ultimately, the experience of thinking.--Daniel Whistler, Royal Holloway, University of London

Exemplarily philosophical, Woodard's Bradley quietly releases idealism's "naive giganticism" into contemporary philosophy, repurposing its history to illuminate and repair present defect. Hence 'Bradley worlds' here challenge empiricists to "feel out the universe", ontologists to think "everything at once", and symbolic worldmakers to experience the actual worldbirthing in which experience-making worlds standardly consist.--Iain Hamilton Grant, University of the West of England

Woodard imbues Bradley's work with a contemporary relevance it has not enjoyed for decades. Unbeknown to both rationalists and vitalists, their competing paradigms point back to Bradley as a forgotten intercessor, who strove to balance the opposing pulls of thinking and feeling. Reading Bradley's work is not just a matter of antiquarian curiosity but a philosophical imperative for anyone invested in contemporary debates about reason and the metaphysics of experience.--Ray Brassier, American University of Beirut