James Frederick Ferrier James Frederick Ferrier was a mid-nineteenth-century Scottish metaphysician who developed the first post-Hegelian system of idealism in Britain. Unlike the British Idealists in the latter half of the nineteenth century, he was neither a Kantian nor a Hegelian. Instead, he largely develops his idealist metaphysics via his defense of Berkeley and … Continue reading Ferrier, James Frederick →.

This excellent collection of essays on Scottish common sense philosophy arose from the 2014 annual conference for the British Society for the History of Philosophy at The University of Edinburgh. It explores how common sense philosophy emerged during the eighteenth century in response to the ‘Ideal Theory.’ The selected chapters are complementary, offering insight into the philosophical and historical importance of common sense philosophy as well as underlining the breadth of research in the history of Scottish Philosophy.The collection begins and (...) ends with essays that consider under-researched aspects of Scottish Philosophy. It is widely perceived that Reid developed common sense via his reaction to Hume’s... (shrink)

James Frederick Ferrier was one of the first post-Hegelian British idealists, developing his idealism via a rejection of Thomas Reid’s common sense philosophy and from a reappraisal of Berkeley’s idealism. This chapter is a critical consideration of his major work, the Institutes of Metaphysic in which he develops a complete system of metaphysics. From an examination of the laws of knowledge and by applying the deductive method he determines that the absolute in cognition is an indivisible subject-object synthesis and it (...) follows from this that absolute existence must involve some self in union thoughts and things. His move from knowing to being is problematic and in this way his ontology falls short of his ambitious aims. Nevertheless, Ferrier provides an unusual and astute idealist epistemology several years before idealism became influential in British philosophy. (shrink)