Abstract
Aherne argues that Coleridge’s attempt to combine religion and philosophy (a mix of German transcendentalism, Platonic creeds and Christian ethics) into a single codified school resulted in his work becoming a catalyst for idealism in the period; it was essentially pedagogical, aimed at cultivating self-consciousness alongside motivating and guiding the intellectual and philosophical development of the individual mind. The chapter begins with an assessment of the reconstitution of Utilitarianism and the rise of Cambridge philosophy; it then examines Coleridge’s formative influence on epistemology and argues that it is specifically dependent on the transatlantic nature of his influence; lastly, it discusses the significance of Coleridge’s idea of the self, especially the diluted and distorted applications of his philosophy to political and aesthetic theories.
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Aherne, P. (2018). The Endurance of Idealism: Ethics, Epistemology, and the Self. In: The Coleridge Legacy. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-95858-3_6
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