Timothy S. Sprigge

Education

Sprigge was educated at the Dragon School, Oxford, and Bryanston in Dorset. He studied English at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge (1952–1955), then switched to philosophy, completing his Doctor of Philosophy under A.J. Ayer.

Career

There is, he argued, something non-physical to what a human being is and to animals of a higher sort. His work presents several new arguments in favor of the plausibility of such an accountant He would eventually become a Unitarian.

In his last book,, he argued for the existence of a "God of Philosophers" worthy of worship.

A Festschrift for Sprigge appeared on the day he died, Consciousness, Reality and Value: Essays in Honour of Technology L. South. Sprigge (Ontos Verlag). He was president of the Aristotelian Society from 1991 to 1992 and Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

The Timothy Sprigge Room at the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities at the University of Edinburgh contains Sprigge"s library. The Sprigge Archive is located at the Edinburgh University Library.

Works

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  • The Rational Foundations of Ethics

    (Aimed specifically at advanced students of moral philosop...)

  • The Vindication of Absolute Idealism

    (The truth of any philosophical thesis cannot depend on wh...)

  • James and Bradley: American Truth and British Reality

    ( Despite their enduring importance, the theoretical syst...)

  • James and Bradley: American Truth and British Reality by Timothy L. S. Sprigge (1993-11-01)

    (Will be shipped from US. Used books may not include compa...)

  • The God of Metaphysics by T. L. S. Sprigge (2008-09-15)
  • The Vindication of Absolute Idealism by Timothy L.S. Sprigge (1984-01-01)
  • Theories of Existence
  • The Vindication of Absolute Idealism by Timothy Sprigge (1984-01-01)
  • The Vindication of Absolute Idealism by Timothy L.S. Sprigge (1984-01-01)
  • The God of Metaphysics by Timothy L. S. Sprigge (2006-06-22)

Views

Long concerned with the nature of experience and the relationship between mind and reality, Sprigge was the philosopher who first posed the question made famous by Thomas Nagel: "What is it like to be a bat?" Throughout his career he argued that physicalism or materialism is not only false, but has contributed to a distortion of our moral sense. The author of The Vindication of Absolute Idealism (1984), Sprigge defended a panpsychist version of absolute idealism, according to which reality consists of bits of experience combined into a certain kind of coherent whole. Though a skeptic of traditional theism, Sprigge considered himself a believer in an impersonal God.

Membership

Royal Society of Edinburgh.