Mr. Sidgwick on ‘Ethical Studies’

Abstract

This piece includes both Bradley’s response to Sidgwick’s critique of his Ethical Studies and Sidgwick’s reply to that response. Bradley states that he has no pretension to solve the problem of the individual in general, and the origin of the Self in particular. Moreover, he says that he repudiates the doctrine that one’s self-realization is achieved when someone else brings about something one desires. To these and other defences, Sidgwick offers various replies: (1) Bradley scarcely attempts to address the charge that his exposition of the self lacks clarity and coherence; and (2) Bradley misunderstands the position that the social organism of which the individual is said to be an essential part is a relative whole, not an absolute whole.