Hilda Oakeley on Idealism, History and the Real Past

Thomas, Emily

doi:10.1080/09608788.2015.1055232

Hilda Oakeley on Idealism, History and the Real Past

Thomas, Emily

Authors

Professor Emily Thomas emily.e.thomas@durham.ac.uk
Professor

Abstract

In the early twentieth century, Hilda Diana Oakeley (1867–1950) set out a new kind of British idealism. Oakeley is an idealist in the sense that she holds mind to actively contribute to the features of experience, but she also accepts that there is a world independent of mind. One of her central contributions to the idealist tradition is her thesis that minds construct our experiences using memory. This paper explores the theses underlying her idealism, and shows how they are intricately connected to the wider debates of her period. I go on to explain how the parts of Oakeley's idealism are connected to further areas of her thought – specifically, her views on history and her growing block theory of time – to provide a sense of Oakeley's philosophy as a system. As there is no existing literature on Oakeley, this paper aims to open a path for further scholarship.

Citation

Thomas, E. (2015). Hilda Oakeley on Idealism, History and the Real Past. British Journal for the History of Philosophy, 23(5), 933-953. https://doi.org/10.1080/09608788.2015.1055232

Journal Article Type	Article
Acceptance Date	May 22, 2015
Online Publication Date	Jul 17, 2015
Publication Date	Sep 1, 2015
Deposit Date	Oct 21, 2016
Publicly Available Date	Jan 17, 2017
Journal	British Journal for the History of Philosophy
Print ISSN	0960-8788
Electronic ISSN	1469-3526
Publisher	Routledge
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
Volume	23
Issue	5
Pages	933-953
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1080/09608788.2015.1055232

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Copyright Statement
This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis Group in British Journal for the History of Philosophy on 17/07/2015, available online at: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/09608788.2015.1055232.