§29. Idealists. I. Philosophers. Vol. 14. The Victorian Age, Part Two. The Cambridge History of English and American Literature: An Encyclopedia in Eighteen Volumes. 1907

The Cambridge History of English and American Literature in 18 Volumes (1907–21).
Volume XIV. The Victorian Age, Part Two.

I. Philosophers.

§ 29. Idealists.

The latter half of the nineteenth century was marked by the work of a number of writers who were influenced by the speculations which, in Germany, had turned the results of Kant’s criticism into a direction which he had not anticipated. This influence, which they shared, and their constant controversy with current empirical philosophy united these writers into what may be termed a school; and this school is sometimes described as neo-Kantian, more commonly as Hegelian or neo-Hegelian. But its members describe it simply as idealism, though it is an idealism of a form new in English thought. Before them, Kant’s speculative successors had not obtained currency in England, unless, perhaps, in a slight measure, through some of the utterances of Coleridge; and the powerful influence of Hamilton’s criticism had been almost sufficient to put a ban on what he called “the philosophy of the unconditioned.”