Book Description
Francis Herbert Bradley (1846-1924) was a Fellow of Merton College, Oxford, and a philosopher of considerable reputation. His Principles Of Logic represented a singular contribution in its attempt to separate logic from psychology and the mirages created by the artificiality of language. This is a reprint of the 1883 version. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

The Principles of Logic
I am really happy, the book is fine in its content and shape. The only difficulty that I encountered is the delay in reaching it to me. I was promised that the book would arrive here with in 15 days. (maximum). Unfortunately it took another 16 days (32 days). Apart form this delay I am happy with your service. If you can do something with regard to this delay, I would be extremely greatful to you. ... Read more

Product Description
This Elibron Classics book is a facsimile reprint of a 1893 edition by Swan Sonnenschein & Co., London. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Great intellectual gymnastics
I completely disagree with his conception of reality, but I enjoyed this book.Bradley was a precursor to the language philosophers.Everyone seems intrigued with Wittgenstein; however, Bradley is far more comprehensive and profound.Plus, he writes very good English.Bradley distinguishes subtle naunces in meaning between words and in this way is a precursor to language philosophy.I also recommend C. S. Lewis's book, A Study in Words.

I'm amazed that all the books I have on language philosophy exclude F H Bradley.He did everything language philosophers did before they did it.

The apogee of British Idealism
This book, written in 1893, is one of the most important books in the history of English language philosophy.During his lifetime, Bradley was one of the best known of British philosophers, but before he died (in 1924) his metaphysical position dropped out of fashion, in part because it was attacked (and misrepresented) by Russell and Moore.In spite of their hostility, Twentieth Century analytic philosophers were profoundly influenced by Bradley. For an excellent discussion of this matter, read the first chapter of Tom Rockmore's book, Hegel, Idealism, and Analytic Philosophy.I recommend reading _Appearance and Reality_before taking on Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit (Galaxy Books).Bradley's argument for absolute idealism is the best written in English.His writing is lively, frequently pointed and sardonic, a "good read".This version, a reproduction of the 1893 edition, is sturdy, well bound, on good paper.It is a bargain and a must read for anyone with a serious interest in philosophy.

Nondualism
Something must have _happened_ to Francis Herbert Bradley.

He seems to have been something of a curmudgeon; at least, he was extremely reclusive and had a reputation for shooting cats. But at some point in his life he must have come to some sort of deep mystical realization.

Otherwise he couldn't have written this book, which reads like a Western version of Shankara. This is philosophy in the grand old style, and it's one of the high points of British idealism.

Bradley's argument doesn't always hold up in its precise details. He doesn't, for example, think that "relations" are real because (he says) they lead to an infinite regress. But Royce replied to this pretty adequately in an appendix to _The World and the Individual_. He also states firmly (and I think correctly) that there's no conceiving reality apart from experience and there's no duality in experience between subject and object. But support for this claim isn't exactly forthcoming. (Timothy L.S. Sprigge does a much better job with it in _The Vindication of Absolute Idealism_.)

But the essential structure of his argument is sound and could be carried through again with a different set of examples (the standard logical paradoxes, say): the world of our ordinary experience turns out upon inspection to be contradictory, so it can't be fully and finally real; what _is_ fully and finally real is a nondual Absolute in which all those apparent contradictions are resolved through that very nonduality.

Well, Bradley puts it better than that, of course, and his prose style is very pleasant to read. This work is also excerpted in James W. Allard and Guy Stock's collection of Bradley's _Writings on Logic and Metaphysics_, so if you want to read a shorter version, check that volume out.

Anyway, the point is, don't ever let anybody tell you there isn't any nondualistic wisdom here in the West. In a different time and place, Bradley would have been revered as a guru -- a prospect that in all likelihood would have made him cringe, so it's probably just as well. But he's clearly trying to articulate a vision here, and few writers have tackled "rational mysticism" with such philosophical flair.

I doubt that Shankara would have shot cats. Fortunately the similarities run deeper than that.

A startling answer to the frustrations of analytic puzzles
This book is indeed extremely important for analytic, continental, and mystic philosophers alike. Bradley's positive view, the Absolute, is proposed here as the _only way out_ of those messy analytic debatesregarding topics such as appearance vs. reality, plurality, quality, andcausation. Bradley's starting point: what is absurd (logically impossible)cannot exist.

Western Zen in a clear and articulate 19th century package
I'm reviewing a book which is currently out of print."Why bother?", one might ask.Well, Bradley's work is one of the clearest explanations of ideas which are central to our 20th century fascination with alternate religions.This is not to say that Bradley was exactly a mystic -- his belief system went beyond mysticism.Yet his emphasis on understanding the limits of our mental life finds strong parallels in Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, as well as Western 'New Age' approaches. Strangely, he wrote in the 19th century.Modern academic philosophers find his work not particularly important.Yet the average reader can gain quite a lot from reading Bradley, his writing style is clear and lucid, and after finishing the book, interested readers may find their world taking on a slightly different cast.It is disappointing to find that Appearance and Reality is out of print, because itstands, especially today, as a text which explicates basic philosophical issues in a way which remains relevant. Brian Whitaker ... Read more

Product Description
This Elibron Classics book is a facsimile reprint of a 1914 edition by the Clarendon Press, Oxford. ... Read more

Book Description
This book examines some of the central logical and epistemological doctrines of British idealist philosopher, F. H. Bradley. Through a detailed analysis of Bradley's doctrine of judgment and its relation to "feeling," Phillip Ferreira views as mistaken recent efforts to see Bradley as a writer in the tradition of anglo-empiricism. And, though the significance of Bradley's thought remains great, Ferreira contends that it stands at a considerable distance from mainstream philosophical analysis. Arguing against those who see Bradley as either a skeptic or a mystic, Bradley and the Structure of Knowledge places the thought of the nineteenth century Oxford philosopher where it was originally understood to belong--firmly in the tradition of rationalistic idealism. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A fine entry into Bradley's thought
Phillip Ferreira has here made a tremendous contribution to what seems to be a developing renaissance in Bradley studies (and Idealist studiesgenerally).

Concerned to subvert recent misunderstandings of Bradley'sthought that would assimilate him to the tradition of British empiricism,Ferreira provides a detailed and highly readable exposition of Bradley'sdoctrines of truth, judgment, and "feeling" that restores him tohis proper place in the tradition of rationalism and Idealism.

This volumeis an excellent introduction to Bradley's thought in general, the more sobecause Bradley's own writings are so difficult to find. (James Allard andGuy Stock have helpfully collected some of his central texts in _F.H.Bradley: Writings on Logic and Metaphysics_, which makes a nice companionto the present volume.)

In it, Ferreira carefully examines and elaboratesBradley's understanding of _judgment_, which Ferreira describes as"_the_ basic act of cognition by which we knowingly encounterreality." The discussion turns to the relation between judgment andtruth, the relation between contradition and thought, the speciallyBradleian understanding of "coherence," and (very importantly)the relation between feeling and knowledge (which occupies two chapters).

Aclosing chapter considers criticisms of Bradley levelled by Russell andJames; a short conclusion argues briefly both that Bradley does not fiteasily into more recent philosophical categories, and that Bradley'sphilosophy might provide a needed corrective to more recent views that weeither have no access to the real or that such access provides no insightinto universal _value_.

An appendix delivers what seems to be a deathblowto recent views of Bradley as an Anglo-empiricist by considering hisrelations to what he regarded as the essentially empiricist view ofinference: associationism.

For Bradley, says Ferreira, "the truth isthe whole." It would perhaps not be unfair to regard this volume as anattempt to spell out in some detail what this doctrine meant to Bradley andto suggest that its meaning should be important to us today as well.

Forthose who, like me, have strong misgivings about the "analyticturn" in philosophy, this fine exposition of Bradley's thought will bemost welcome. And for those who, also like me, regard Brand Blanshard asthe finest of twentieth-century philosophers, this volume will be ofinterest as regards the Idealist tradition that was the strongest influenceon that giant of rationalism. ... Read more

Book Description
T.S. Eliot's engagement with the work of the British philosopher F.H. Bradley deeply influenced his poetry and criticism throughout his career. The author gives a critical evaluation of Eliot's disagreements with the philosopher, providing an important new insight into Eliot's relationship with language. She illustrates this by referring to Eliot's work on Dante, Keats, Woolf, Pound and Joyce. She shows how Eliot's use of literary epiphany and his understanding of prejudice are rooted in his study of Bradley. ... Read more

Book Description

T. S. Elliot left Harvard during his third year of study in the department of philosophy and went to England. Forty-six years later he authorized the publication of his doctoral dissertation but the book is virtually impossible to find today.

Here we have a reprint of his sympathetic but not entirely uncritial study of the English idealist philosopher F. H. Bradley. Enthusiastic approval came to Eliot at the time from Harvard pragmatist Josiah Royce, who pronounced his writing of philosophy "the work of an expert."

Eliot's critical literary theory was deeply influenced by his early philosophical outlook. This rewarding book provides a potent refutation of the false but frequent claim that Eliot's poetic and critical intelligence had no philosophical writings, making this book indispensable to all literary critics and theorists.

Book Description
This major contribution to the study of F.H. Bradley, the most influential member of the nineteenth century school of British Idealist philosophers, offers a sustained interpretation of his Principles of Logic.After explaining how it is possible for inferences to be valid and yet have conclusions containing new information, James Allard describes how this solution provides a basis for Bradley's metaphysical view that reality is one interconnected experience.In the process he uncovers a new problem as to the nature of truth. ... Read more

Book Description
An extensive list of Francis Herbert Bradley's works and the significant studies done on his philosophy. This bibliography contains more than 1,300 citations. ... Read more

Book Description
F. H. Bradley was the greatest of the British Idealists, but for much of this century his views have been neglected, primarily as a result of the severe criticism to which they were subjected by Russell and Moore.In recent years, however, there has been a resurgence of interest in and a widespread reappraisal of his work.W. J. Mander offers a general introduction to Bradley's metaphysics and its logical foundations, and shows that much of his philosophy has been seriously misunderstood.Dr Mander argues that any adequate treatment of Bradley's thought must take account of his unique dual inheritance from the traditions of British empiricism and Hegelian rationalism.The scholarship of recent years is assessed, and new interpretations are offered of Bradley's views about truth, predication, and relations, and of his arguments for idealism.This book is a clear and helpful guide for those new to this difficult but fascinating thinker, and at the same time an original and stimulating contribution to the re-evaluation of his work. ... Read more

Book Description
Appearance versus Reality is a collection of new studies of the work of F. H. Bradley, a leading British philosopher of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, and one of the key figures in the emergence of Anglo-American analytic philosophy.In recent years there has been a widespread revaluation of Bradley's philosophy: it has been found to offer alternative approaches to those inherited from Frege, Descartes, the British Empiricists, and Quinean naturalism, which have dominated analytic philosophy for some time.The nine well-known contributors to this volume, from Britain, North America, and Australia, focus on Bradley's views on truth, meaning, knowledge, and reality.These essays show that his work not only was crucial to the development of twentieth-century philosophy, but can illuminate contemporary debates in metaphysics, logic, and epistemology. ... Read more

Book Description
This collection of specially written papers on F. H. Bradley's philosophy makes accessible the writings of one of England's greatest philosophers. The contributors, finding in Bradley's writings arguments that extend topics currently at the forefront of philosophical thought, aim to show the
relevance of Bradley's work to contemporary issues in logic, metaphysics, and moral and political philosophy. ... Read more