Language English ISBN 978-1402187636 Published 1893 Country United Kingdom | Media type Print Editor F. H. Bradley | |
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Similar F H Bradley books, Theoretical philosophy books | ||
Appearance and Reality (1893; second edition 1897) is a book by the English philosopher Francis Herbert Bradley, in which Bradley, influenced by Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, argues that most things are appearances and attempts to describe the reality these appearances misrepresent, which Bradley calls the Absolute. The main statement of Bradley's metaphysics, Appearance and Reality is considered his most important book. Appearance and Reality was an early influence on Bertrand Russell, who, however, later rejected Bradley's views.
Contents
Background
Bradley's works were influenced by Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel.
Summary
Appearance and Reality comprises two volumes: "Appearance" and "Reality". Bradley argues in the first that most things, including objects and their qualities, time and space, causation, the self, and things-in-themselves, are appearances, while in the second he attempts to describe the reality these appearances misrepresent: the Absolute, a single cosmic experience of which people are components. Ordinary concepts provide a pragmatically useful way of thinking about the world, but being incoherent they cannot provide a satisfactory grasp of reality. Reality, as predicate, is a matter of degree: concepts are true or false of reality in different degrees. The concept of the Absolute is only a way of attempting to understand something that cannot be fully comprehended. Bradley tries to establish these conclusions by arguing that reality must have a unitary togetherness that cannot be captured by the ordinary conception of many distinct things in relation, and that all concrete reality must somehow be psychical in nature.
Reception
Appearance and Reality is regarded as Bradley's most important book. According to Ronald W. Clark, its publication helped to "wrest the philosophical initiative from the Continent." In 1894, the work was reviewed by J. M. E. McTaggart in Revue de métaphysique et de morale, and Josiah Royce in The Philosophical Review. Appearance and Reality was an early influence on Bertrand Russell, encouraging him to question contemporary dogmas and beliefs. Russell recalled that Appearance and Reality had a profound appeal not only to him but to most of his contemporaries, and that G. F. Stout had stated that Bradley "had done as much as is humanly possible in ontology." While Russell later rejected Bradley's views, he continued to regard Appearance and Reality with "the greatest respect". Richard Wollheim comments that the second edition of Appearance and Reality contains considerable new material, and should be consulted in preference to the original edition. According to British philosopher Timothy Sprigge, some of Bradley's arguments are famous. Sprigge suggests that Bradley's absolute idealism in some respects received a better presentation in Bradley's subsequent work Essays on Truth and Reality (1914) than in Appearance and Reality. Thomas Mautner comments that Bradley's "bold metaphysics" is presented with "pugnacious verve".