Thomas Carlyle, Scotland's Migrant Philosophers, and Canadian Idealism, c. 1870–1914

That the great Scottish man of letters Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) exercised a formative influence over late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century ‘British Idealism’ has long been recognized by historians. Through works such as Sartor Resartus (1833–1834), Heroes and Hero-Worship (1841), Past and Present (1843), and Latter-Day Pamphlets (1850), Carlyle transmitted his ideas regarding the immanence of the divine in nature and man, the infinite character of duty, and the ethical role of the state to a generation of subsequent philosophers. The following article will extend this insight, arguing that through the agency of an array of migrant Scottish intellectuals, Carlyle's writings made an equally significant contribution to the development of Idealism in English-speaking Canada.

Epistemological Empiricisms

The chapter considers the rise of modern epistemological empiricism, from Gassendi and Locke to Spencer and the positivists. The chapter studies empirical philosophy in France (Condillac, Diderot, La Mettrie, Maine de Biran); Claude Bernard’s experimental medicine; the concept of experience in British idealism; the idea of “experimental life” in J. S. Mill and Nietzsche; Dilthey’s concept of experience (Erlebnis); Russell’s concept of sense data; and the value of experience in scientific philosophy (Mach) and logical empiricism (Carnap). Additionally the chapter discusses the emergence of observation as a scientific practice, the contributions of the social studies of science to our understanding of experimental practice, and surveys modern thought concerning visual perception.

The British Idealists

British Idealism came to the fore in the 1870s, by which time the figures of Mill and Hamilton were fast disappearing into history. Hence the Idealists’ two-fronted war on agnosticism and empiricism was conducted against more contemporary representatives such as Spencer and Huxley on the one hand, and Bain and Lewes on the other. But at the same time as criticizing rival approaches, more positively—both in theory and through the actual construction of bold metaphysical systems—the Idealists urged the potential of reason adequately to understand reality; for in their eyes the former was something fundamentally of a piece with the latter. The British Idealist movement lasted several decades and took in a great many names, but this chapter confines its attention to just four representative figures, John and Edward Caird, Andrew Seth Pringle-Pattison, and Henry Jones.

Thomas Carlyle, Scotland’s Migrant Philosophers, and Australasian Idealism

That the great Scottish man of letters Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) exercised a formative influence over late-nineteenth and early-twentieth-century ‘British Idealism’ has long been recognized by historians. Through works such as Sartor Resartus (1833–1834), Heroes and Hero-Worship (1841), Past and Present (1843), and Latter-Day Pamphlets (1850), Carlyle transmitted his ideas regarding the immanence of the divine in nature and man, the infinite character of duty, and the ethical role of the state to a generation of subsequent philosophers. The following article will extend this insight, arguing that through the agency of an array of migrant Scottish intellectuals, Carlyle’s writings made an equally significant contribution to the development of Idealism in Australia and New Zealand. In doing so, the article draws upon not only published treatises and monographs, but also speeches as reported in the local press, unpublished doctoral dissertations, and, in one notable case, archival sources. Together, these demonstrate beyond doubt the important and enduring contribution of Thomas Carlyle to Australasian Idealism.