British idealism, and social explanation
Subtitle: a study in late Victorian thought
By: Sandra M. den Otter.
Series: Oxford historical monographs
Publisher: Clarendon Press; Oxford University Press
Published: 1996
Place of publication: Oxford [England]; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 250
Subjects: Idealism, English.; Social sciences -- Philosophy -- History -- 19th century.; Political science -- Philosophy -- History -- 19th century.; Great Britain -- Intellectual life -- 19th century.
Description: 'Community' - how to define and to secure it has become a topic of lively discussion. This endeavour also struck a deep chord among Victorians encountering the urban, industrial culture that had emerged by the end of the nineteenth century.

In this original and stimulating study, Sandra den Otter explores the idealists' search for 'connection', for a sense of community that fitted the new forms of society, characterized for many concerned observers by dislocation, a loosening of traditional bonds, and intense individualism. Idealist responses to these problems dominated social theory until the Great War.

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This book illuminates the idealists' place in the vigorous contemporary debate about a new science of society. Idealist links to German thought, the teaching of philosophy in mid-century Oxford, and idealist criticisms of the naturalist underpinnings of much current social theory are assessed.

Dr den Otter argues that idealists constructed an interpretive social theory which adopted various strands of positivist and even naturalist manners in its attempt to frame a social theory suited to the dilemmas of their age. Tracing the dialogue between idealists and sociologists like Herbert Spencer and Emile Durkheim, the study analyses idealist reinterpretations of the individual, the state, and community.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [215]-244) and index.