Muirhead Library of Philosophy

The Muirhead Library of Philosophy was an influential series which published some of the best writings of twentieth century philosophy. The original programme was drawn up by John Muirhead and published in Erdmann's History of Philosophy in 1890. This statement was published in slightly altered form in subsequent volumes.

"The Muirhead Library of Philosophy was designed as a contribution to the History of Modern Philosophy under the heads: first of Different Schools of Thought — Sensationalist, Realist, idealist, Intuitivist; secondly of different Subjects — Psychology, Ethics, Political Philosophy, Theology. While much had been done in England in tracing the course of evolution in nature, history, economics, morals and religion, little had been done in tracing the development of thought on these subjects. Yet 'the evolution of opinion is part of the whole evolution'."

It has since been forgotten with the waning of the influence of some of the published philosophers. Among the authors published are: Bernard Bosanquet, Axel Hägerström, G. W. F. Hegel, Bertrand Russell, Nicolai Hartmann, J. N. Findlay, Brand Blanshard, Henri Bergson, H. H. Price, F. H. Bradley, G. S. Brett, A. H. Johnson, Roderick Chisholm, Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, John Henry Muirhead, Joel Kupperman, G. F. Stout, George Edward Moore, Edmund Husserl, R. J. Hirst, H. J. Paton, William Marshall Urban, Max Black, Morris Lazerowitz and others. Some of the books in the series are:

Nicholas Malebranche, Dialogues on Metaphysics

A. H. Johnson, Experiential Realism

Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, The Principal Upanisads

Roderick Chisholm, Person and Object

Bertrand Russell, Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy

Joel Kupperman, Ethical Knowledge

G. W. F. Hegel, The Phenomenology of The Mind

G. W. F. Hegel, The Science of Logic

G. W. F. Hegel, The Philosophy of Nature

G. S. Brett, A History of Psychology 3 vols.

Henri Bergson, Time and Free Will

G. F. Stout, Analytic Psychology

G. E. Moore, Some Main Problems in Philosophy

G. E. Moore, Philosophical Papers

Edmund Husserl, Ideas: General Introduction to Pure Phenomenology

Brand Blanshard, The Nature of Thought

Brand Blanshard, Reason and Analysis

R. J. Hirst, Problems of Perception

Axel Hagerstrom, Philosophy and Religion, (1964, translated by Robert T. Sandin)

H. J. Paton, The Good Will

H. J. Paton, Kant's Metaphysic of Experience

Bernard Bosanquet, History of Aesthetic

William Marshall Urban, Language and Reality

William Marshall Urban, Valuation

Nicolai Hartmann, Ethics

The importance of this series can be judged by the list of masterpieces in Frank Magill's World Masterpieces of Philosophy in Digest Form, which includes many of the works from this series in its overview of twentieth century philosophy.