Francis Herbert Bradley

Francis Herbert Bradley (1846-1924), English philosopher and exponent of absolute idealism, a system that conceives the whole of reality to be the product of the mind rather than an object perceived by the senses. His philosophy drew heavily on the work of the German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel.

Born in South Wales, January 30, 1846, Bradley attended University College at the University of Oxford. Soon after he won a fellowship at Merton College in 1870, he was stricken with a kidney disease that made him a semi-invalid. For the rest of his life, he devoted himself completely to writing. Shortly before his death on September 18, 1924, he received the Order of Merit, the first philosopher so honored.

Bradley espoused the Hegelian idea that nothing is altogether real but the “Absolute,” defined as the totality of everything, which transcends contradiction. Everything else—including religion, science, moral precept, even common sense—is contradictory. One of his principal works, Appearance and Reality (1893), is considered one of the most original works in 19th-century British metaphysics.