As a philosopher rather than a historian, Phillip Ferreira tends naturally, in his article in this issue of The Pluralist, "On the Imperviousness of Persons," as in his first one on The Worldview of Personalism, to place the emphasis quite as much on the general philosophical issues as on the specific historical interpretation of Pringle-Pattison. But this emphasis was from the beginning invited by my own assessment of Pringle-Pattison. I will continue here to answer Ferreira to a considerable extent in (...) its terms, but, as a historian rather than a philosopher, I will try to use arguments which, based on my historical knowledge of them, I think would have been those of Pringle-Pattison and the other personal .. (shrink)

Personalism is understood today as the name of an important current in twentieth-century thought which, inspired by the Christian and humanistic traditions of the West, has sought to deepen our understanding of the meaning and value of human personhood. Opposing both individualism and collectivism, personalism has stressed the uniqueness of each person, the meaning and value of interpersonal relations, and the unity that holds persons together and is, ultimately, also personal in itself: the person of God. Personalism's insights into the (...) nature of personhood have broad implications for our view of ethics, politics, education, and religion. The history of personalism has, however, been poorly understood. Jan Olof Bengtsson shows that personalism began as early as the eighteenth century and was a central, international current of thought throughout the nineteenth century - that it was, in fact, more characteristic of the nineteenth century than of the twentieth. (shrink)

Collecting papers read at a conference with the same title at Harris Manchester College, Oxford, in 1997, the present volume bears eloquent witness to the growing interest in idealistic philosophy. In his introduction, the editor, Bill Mander, provides historical sketches of the idealists covered, but the historical scholarship signalled by the title is interwoven throughout with — mostly idealist — philosophizing in the present. Staying short for the most part of broader historical perspectives, some papers highlight important aspects of the (...) intellectual context in which idealism, as reconsidered today, necessarily finds itself, and point to its possible contributions, while others continue an idealistic discourse very much on its own terms. Properly enough in the idealistic context however, most of the contributors seem to be aware that history and present philosophizing cannot be wholly separated. If they do not directly address it, most contributions at least illustrate abundantly what is presently, and what was during the historical period covered, taking place on the modern scene as set by broader and deeper cultural forces, the proper understanding of which, as will soon become clear, I think in some cases holds a key to the assessment of important aspects of their subject-matter. Mention will be made of all papers, but since in-depth analyses of each are here impossible, while being in this case at the same time desirable, I choose to discuss about one third of the contributions in greater detail. (shrink)

Collecting papers read at a conference with the same title at Harris Manchester College, Oxford, in 1997, the present volume bears eloquent witness to the growing interest in idealistic philosophy. In his introduction, the editor, Bill Mander, provides historical sketches of the idealists covered, but the historical scholarship signalled by the title is interwoven throughout with — mostly idealist — philosophizing in the present. Staying short for the most part of broader historical perspectives, some papers highlight important aspects of the (...) intellectual context in which idealism, as reconsidered today, necessarily finds itself, and point to its possible contributions, while others continue an idealistic discourse very much on its own terms. Properly enough in the idealistic context however, most of the contributors seem to be aware that history and present philosophizing cannot be wholly separated. If they do not directly address it, most contributions at least illustrate abundantly what is presently, and what was during the historical period covered, taking place on the modern scene as set by broader and deeper cultural forces, the proper understanding of which, as will soon become clear, I think in some cases holds a key to the assessment of important aspects of their subject-matter. Mention will be made of all papers, but since in-depth analyses of each are here impossible, while being in this case at the same time desirable, I choose to discuss about one third of the contributions in greater detail. (shrink)

pp. 79–103 The idea of utility in Adam Smith's The Theory of Moral Sentiments Rosen, F.