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All Outputs (44)

Hilda Oakeley on Idealism, Time, and Feminism (2025)
Book Chapter
Thomas, E. (in press). Hilda Oakeley on Idealism, Time, and Feminism. In J. Connelly, & S. Panagakou (Eds.), The Palgrave Handbook of British Idealism. Palgrave Macmillan

Constance Naden’s Metaphysics: Hylo-Idealism’s Ideal Known World and Unknown Matter (2024)
Journal Article
Thomas, E. (2024). Constance Naden’s Metaphysics: Hylo-Idealism’s Ideal Known World and Unknown Matter. Journal of the History of Philosophy, 62(3), 475-499

In 1880s Britain, Constance Naden defended “hylo-idealism,” a theory aiming to unify materialism with idealism. This paper offers the first sustained study of Naden’s metaphysical system. On this new reading of Naden’s hylo-idealism, her materialism... Read More about Constance Naden’s Metaphysics: Hylo-Idealism’s Ideal Known World and Unknown Matter.

Metaphysical Idealists in Britain: Constance Naden, Victoria Welby, and Arabella Buckley (2023)
Book Chapter
Thomas, E. (2023). Metaphysical Idealists in Britain: Constance Naden, Victoria Welby, and Arabella Buckley. In A. Stone, & L. Moland (Eds.), Oxford Handbook of American and British Women Philosophers in the Nineteenth Century (C34S1–C34N22). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780197558898.013.34

Idealists agree that reality is somehow mental, holding say that reality comprises consciousness or spirit. Idealism can be developed in many different ways and, before the distinctive movement known as “British idealism” emerged, other idealisms wer... Read More about Metaphysical Idealists in Britain: Constance Naden, Victoria Welby, and Arabella Buckley.

G E Moore’s Time Realism: Presentism, A-Theory, and the Ghost of Henry Sidgwick (2023)
Journal Article
Thomas, E. (2023). G E Moore’s Time Realism: Presentism, A-Theory, and the Ghost of Henry Sidgwick. Gavin David Young: Lectures in Philosophy, 14, 1-33. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13772495

The 'new realist' G E Moore is hardly known as a metaphysician of time, yet I argue his 1910-11 lectures, later published as Some Main Problems of Philosophy , offer the first substantial English-language defence of presentism and the A-theory. This... Read More about G E Moore’s Time Realism: Presentism, A-Theory, and the Ghost of Henry Sidgwick.

The Specious Present in English Philosophy 1749-1785: On David Hartley, Joseph Priestley, Abraham Tucker, and William Watson (2023)
Journal Article
Thomas, E. (2023). The Specious Present in English Philosophy 1749-1785: On David Hartley, Joseph Priestley, Abraham Tucker, and William Watson. Philosophers' Imprint, 23(1), https://doi.org/10.3998/phimp.1281

Drawing on the 1870s-1880s work of Shadworth Hodgson and Robert Kelly, William James famously characterised the specious present as ‘the short duration of which we are immediately and incessantly sensible’. Literature on the pre-history of late ninet... Read More about The Specious Present in English Philosophy 1749-1785: On David Hartley, Joseph Priestley, Abraham Tucker, and William Watson.

Victoria Welby (2023)
Book
Thomas, E. (2023). Victoria Welby. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009345897

In 1880s Britain, Victoria Welby (1837–1912) began creating a rich, wide-ranging metaphysical system. At its heart lies Motion, 'the great fact, the supreme category'. Drawing extensively on archive materials, this Element offers the first study of W... Read More about Victoria Welby.

The Obsession with Time in 1880s-1930s American-British Philosophy (2023)
Journal Article
Thomas, E. (2023). The Obsession with Time in 1880s-1930s American-British Philosophy. British Journal for the History of Philosophy, 31(2), 149-160. https://doi.org/10.1080/09608788.2022.2093157

In American-British philosophy around the turn of the twentieth century, every philosopher and their dog had something to say on time. Thinkers worried about our experience of time: Do we actually experience time? How do we experience the present? Is... Read More about The Obsession with Time in 1880s-1930s American-British Philosophy.

The Philosophy of Joseph Priestley’s 1765 Timeline: Abstract Ideas, Time, and Human Progress (2023)
Journal Article
Thomas, E. (2023). The Philosophy of Joseph Priestley’s 1765 Timeline: Abstract Ideas, Time, and Human Progress. History of Philosophy Quarterly, 40(1), 25-58. https://doi.org/10.5406/21521026.40.1.03

In 1765, Joseph Priestley created what may be the world's first modern timeline, A Chart of Biography. This paper offers the first study of the philosophy underlying Priestley's timeline. It argues that Priestley was pushed towards representing times... Read More about The Philosophy of Joseph Priestley’s 1765 Timeline: Abstract Ideas, Time, and Human Progress.

Mary Calkins, Victoria Welby, and the spatialization of time (2022)
Journal Article
Thomas, E. (2023). Mary Calkins, Victoria Welby, and the spatialization of time. British Journal for the History of Philosophy, 31(2), 205-230. https://doi.org/10.1080/09608788.2022.2123780

This paper explores a trans-Atlantic clash about time: in 1899, American philosopher Mary Calkins argued we should not spatialize time; in 1899, British philosopher Victoria Welby argued we should. I take their disagreement as a starting point to con... Read More about Mary Calkins, Victoria Welby, and the spatialization of time.

Space and its Relationship to God (2022)
Book Chapter
Janiak, A., & Thomas, E. (2022). Space and its Relationship to God. In D. Miller, & D. Jalobeanu (Eds.), The Cambridge History of Philosophy of the Scientific Revolution (424-438). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108333108.025

During the Scientific Revolution, philosophers wondered how best to understand space. Many debates revolved around the account advanced in Descartes’s Principles of Philosophy (1644), and this chapter treats it as a focal point. Descartes argued for... Read More about Space and its Relationship to God.

Locke, Newton, and Edmund Law (2021)
Book Chapter
Thomas, E. (2021). Locke, Newton, and Edmund Law. In J. Gordon-Roth, & S. Weinberg (Eds.), The Lockean Mind. Routledge

Time through time: its evolution through western philosophy in seven ideas (2021)
Journal Article
Thomas, E. (2021). Time through time: its evolution through western philosophy in seven ideas. Think, 20(58), 23-38. https://doi.org/10.1017/s1477175621000038

What is time? Just like everything else in the world, our understanding of time has changed continually over time. This article tracks this question through the history of Western philosophy and looks at major answers from the likes of Aristotle, Kan... Read More about Time through time: its evolution through western philosophy in seven ideas.