An "objective idealist" philosopher who spent the largest portion of his long career at Harvard University, William Ernest Hocking was an influential teacher and a prolific writer. His interests and writings in philosophy left hardly any facet of the subject untouched--philosophy of religion, human nature, political and social philosophy, comparative religion, and philosophy of law. While standing in the idealist tradition and strongly influenced by Josiah Royce, Hocking appropriated elements from William James's radical empiricism and incorporated the chief insights of mysticism. He believed that experience in its most primitive form is already social, involving a knowledge of other human minds and an immediate awareness of God as Other Mind.

Hocking was never narrowly concerned with intellectual issues. He underscored repeatedly, in word and deed, that philosophy is no armchair endeavor. "If the teachings of a philosopher seem esoteric or divorced from reality," he remarked, "it's the fault...