Abstract

This brilliantly documented study by two political scientists complements the earlier work by the Belfast scholar, A.J. Milne, The Social Philosophy of English Idealism, in the sense that it seeks to trace influences of British idealism in actual social and historical events. Milne’s astute volume expounds the logic of monistic idealism, beginning with the “concrete universal” and exploring the theoretical bases for Bradley’s, Green’s, Bosanquet’s, and Royce’s views on social ethics. This volume, acknowledging the religious context of idealism and its “Metaphysical Theory of Politics”, surveys the impact of “radical philosophical idealism” on British liberalism. Here legislation can be viewed as the pursuit of social justice rather than disguised paternalism.