Professor Emily Thomas' Outputs (6)

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, 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.