Bernard Bosanquet was one of the leading philosophers and political thinkers in the English-speaking world in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, an important figure in social reform in Britain, and one of the principal exponents, along with F. H. Bradley, of "Absolute Idealism." Though influenced by the German thinkers Immanuel Kant and Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Bosanquet's writings also reflect the interest in classical Greek thought that permeated intellectual life in Britain in the mid 1800s. In his work one finds a familiarity with other philosophers outside of the English-speaking world besides Kant and Hegel, such as Emile Durkheim, Edmund Husserl, Benedetto Croce, and Giovanni Gentile.

The breadth of Bosanquet's interests is obvious from the range of topics treated in his books and essays. He made significant contributions to logic, metaphysics, political philosophy, social and public policy, aesthetics, and social work. He was not only a...