Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism


Alexander, Samuel | G. F. Stout (essay date 1940)

G. F. Stout (essay date 1940)

SOURCE: "The Philosophy of Samuel Alexander (I.)," in Mind: A Quarterly Review, Vol. XLIX, No. 193, January, 1940, pp. 1-18.

[In the following essay, Stout presents the first part of an extended analysis of Alexander's philosophical system, focusing on his concepts of mind, mental processes, and sensory perception.]

According to Mr. Laird "no English writer has produced so grand a system of speculative metaphysics in so grand a manner since Hobbes in 1696 completed his metaphysical journey with the publication of De Corpore". I entirely agree. But this was not the kind of praise which pleased Alexander himself. When the plan of his philosophy first dawned upon him in all its brilliance, he hoped and was strongly tempted to believe that it was destined to be the "philosophy of the future". What he really longed for was confirmation of this estimate of the objective value of his work. Mere praise of its...

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