WJEC/Eduqas RS for A2/Yr2: Religion and Ethics (DRAFT)

WJEC / Eduqas Religious Studies for A Level Year 2 and A2 Religion and Ethics

F. H. Bradley’s Ethical Studies and Idealist Moral Philosophy The rest of this section we will look at F. H. Bradley. The following pages may seem comprehensive when Bradley appears to be just one part of the Specification list; however, this is misleading as the Specification for T1A is a whole entity in relation to Naturalism and the intention is that the following pages can be used to select appropriate evidence and examples to illustrate naturalistic propositions and its overall position. Obviously, you will not need to take all this into an examination with you but that does not mean it is not relevant. Any of the following can be used to support your answers. It also makes sense to consider Bradley’s full argument as presented in chapter five of his work Ethical Studies which is where he expounds key elements of ethical naturalistic theory. Francis Herbert Bradley was born on January 30, 1846 in Clapham, Surrey, England. His father was an evangelical preacher. Bradley studied at Marlborough College and left it in 1863. In 1865, Bradley got into University College, Oxford and was later elected to a lucrative fellowship at Merton College, Oxford in 1870 which was tenable for life, had no teaching duties, and could be affected only by marriage. Bradley never married and therefore, without teaching duties, had much time to continue writing. Although Bradley was inspired by Hegel’s dialectical method, Bradley did not look upon himself as a Hegelian philosopher. However, his views on ethics were aired in his highly polemical work Ethical Studies published in 1876. This was a series of related essays to work dialectically through the defective theories towards a better understanding of ethics. F. H. Bradley was a famous British philosopher belonging to the tradition of British Idealism or Neo-Hegelians as they are sometimes called. He was heavily influenced by the philosopher Hegel’s approach to philosophical investigations. Technically, Bradley cannot be regarded as a Naturalist philosopher; his major work on ethics, Ethical Studies , is a highly polemical work so typical of the Hegelian tradition. Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel was a German philosopher who tried to overcome the idea of dualism , that is the distinctive separation of the meta- physical and the physical by considering one view (thesis) and then the contrary view (antithesis) and then combining them (synthesis) – although it was not quite as straight forward as this may suggest. This method was known as dialectical synthesis . Bradley, a British idealist philosopher, following Hegel’s methodology, attempted to present a more developed form of Naturalism by combining it with Kant’s philosophy of duty. The Stanford Encyclopedia suggests that sometimes Bradley’s work is taken out of context and considered as his ‘final’ position on philosophy and this has happened with regard to Naturalism. Although Bradley gives a good account of it, Naturalism is not his final position and so this explains some of the confusion when he is presented as a Naturalist philosopher in some books. Key quotes There is a broad sense of ‘moral naturalism’ whereby a moral naturalist is someone who believes an adequate philosophical account of morality can be given in terms entirely consistent with a naturalistic position in philosophical inquiry more generally. According to such broad metaphysical naturalism, all facts are natural facts. Natural facts are understood to be facts about the natural world, facts of the sort in which the natural sciences trade. (Lenman) … the famous ‘My Station and Its Duties’, where he outlines a social conception of the self and of morality with such vigour that it is understandable that the mistaken idea that it expresses his own position has gained some currency. (Stanford)

Specification content F. H. Bradley – ethical sentences express propositions; objective features of the world make propositions true or false; meta- ethical statements can be seen in scientific terms.

F. H. Bradley

DRAFT

Key quote This philosophical method is called by Hegel ‘dialectical’, and it is the method of Bradley’s Ethical Studies ’. (Norman)

Key terms Dialectical synthesis: Hegel’s view that two opposite views (hypothesis, antithesis) can be united (synthesis) through philosophical analysis Dualism: philosophical view that accepts two states of existence, the physical and metaphysical Idealism: group of metaphysical philosophies asserting that reality, or reality as humans can know it, is fundamentally mental, mentally constructed, or otherwise immaterial Polemical: philosophical argument of or involving strongly critical writing or speech

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