The eighth volume of Copleston’s A History of Philosophy opens with an examination of the turn to empiricism in nineteenth-century Britain, analysing the important work of utilitarian thinkers such as Bentham and Mill.

Frederick Copleston was Professor of the History of Philosophy and Dean of the Faculty of Theology at London University. This eleven-volume work is one of the most remarkable single-handed scholarly enterprises of modern times. Volume 8 covers Jeremy Bentham, Francis Herbert Bradley, John Dewey, William James, John Stuart Mill, George Edward Moore, Charles Sanders Peirce, Josiah Royce, Bertrand Arthur William Russell and Herbert Spencer.

This volume details the development of idealism in both Britain and America as well as the revolt against it represented by the work of Moore and Russell in the twentieth century. There is also an invaluable section on Peirce’s and Dewey’s pragmatism.

Brimming with detail and enthusiasm, A History of Philosophy gives an accessible account of philosophers from all eras and explains their works in relation to other philosophers. Each volume is an ideal guide for students studying specific eras and as a set offers a complete and unrivalled overview of the entire western philosophical tradition.