Coleridge Samuel Taylor - Coleridge As Philosopher

Muirhead Library of Philosophy

COLERIDGE AS PHILOSOPHER

Muirhead Library of Philosophy

AESTHETICS

In 3 Volumes

COLERIDGE AS PHILOSOPHER

JOHN H MUIRHEAD

First published in 1930

Reprinted in 2002 by

Routledge

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First issued in paperback 2013

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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Coleridge as Philosopher

ISBN13: 978-0-415-29558-1 (hardback)

ISBN13: 978-0-415-84663-9 (paperback)

Aesthetics: 3 Volumes

ISBN 0-415-29527-0

Muirhead Library of Philosophy: 95 Volumes

ISBN 0-415-27897-X

Muirhead Libarary of Philosophy

An admirable statement of the aims of the Library of Philosophy was provided by the first editor, the late Professor H. J. Muirhead, m his description of the original programme printed in Erdmanns History of Philosophy under the date 1890. This was slightly modified in subsequent volumes to take the form of the following statement:

The Muirhead Library of Philosophy was designed as a contribution to the History of Modern Philosophy under the heads: first of different Schools of ThoughtSensationalist, Realist, Idealist, Intuitivist; secondly of different SubjectsPsychology, Ethics, Aesthetics, Political Philosophy, Theology. While much had been done in England in tracing the course of evolution in nature, history, economics, morals and religion, little had been done in tracing the development of thought on these subjects. Yet the evolution of opinion is part of the whole evolution.

By the co-operation of different writers in carrying out this plan it was hoped that a thoroughness and completeness of treatment, otherwise unattainable, might be secured. It was believed also that from writers mainly British and American fuller consideration of English Philosophy than it had hitherto received might be looked for. In the earlier series of books containing, among others, Bosanquets History of Aesthetics, Pfleiderers Rational Theology since Kant, Albees History of English Utilitarianism, Bonars Philosophy and Political Economy, Bretts History of Psychology, Ritchies Natural Rights, these objects were to a large extent effected.

In the meantime original work of a high order was being produced both in England and America by such writers as Bradley, Stout, Bertrand Russell, Baldwin, Urban, Montague and others, and a new interest in foreign works, German, French and Italian, which had either become classical or were attracting public attention, had developed. The scope of the Library thus became extended into something more international, and it is entering on the fifth decade of its existence in the hope that it may contribute to that mutual understanding between countries which is so pressing a need of the present time.

The need which Professor Muirhead stressed is no less pressing today, and few will deny that philosophy has much to do with enabling us to meet it, although no one, least of all Muirhead himself, would regard that as the sole, or even the main, object of philosophy. As Professor Muirhead continues to lend the distinction of his name to the Library of Philosophy, it seemed not inappropriate to allow him to recall us to these aims in his own words. The emphasis on the history of thought seemed to me also very timely; and the number of important works promised for the Library in the near future augur well for the continued fulfilment, in this and in other ways, of the expectations of the original editor.

H. D. Lewis

COLERIDGE

AS

PHILOSOPHER

BY

JOHN H. MUIRHEAD

First Published in 1930

Second Impression 1954

Third Impression 1970

This book is copyright under the Berne Convention. All rights are reserved. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act, 1956, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, electrical, chemical, mechanical, optical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. Enquiries should be addressed to the Publishers.

ISBN 0 04 192025 2

TO

P. M.

Yea, oft alone,

Piercing the long neglected holy cave,

The haunt obscure of old Philosophy,

He bade with lifted torch its starry walls

Sparkle, as erst they sparkled to the flame

Of odorous lamps tended by Saint and Sage.

COLERIDGE A Tombless Epitaph

Thou that within me art, my Self! An Ey

Or Temple of a wide Infinity !

O What a World art Thou ! a World within !

In thee appear

All Things, and are

Alive in Thee ! Super-Substantial, rare,

Abov themselves, and near a-kin

To those pure Things we find

In His Great Mind,

Who made the World ! Tho now eclipsed by Sin,

Yet this within my Intellect

Is found, when on it I reflect.

THOMAS TRAHERNE My Spirit

THE following study was undertaken in the conviction, gathered from a superficial acquaintance with Coleridges published works, that as a stage in the development of a national form of idealistic philosophy his ideas are far more important than has hitherto been realized either by the educated public or by professed students of the subject. Closer study of them further convinced me that they formed in his mind a far more coherent body of philosophical thought than he has been anywhere credited with, and that to do fuller justice to this side of his multifarious and miraculous activity a more serious attempt than any with which I was acquainted required to be made to set them in relation to the state of philosophy at the time, and to the great revival of metaphysical study in England which the latter half of the nineteenth century was to witness. There was obvious difficulty, and not less obvious risk in any such attempt.