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Philosophical idealism and international politics: Bosanquet, Treitschke and war

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 October 2009

P. Savigear
Affiliation:
University of Leicester

Extract

Bernard Bosanquet spent the First World War at his cottage in Oxshott, in Surrey, and from here he measured the implications of the conflict for his philosophy of the state. The result of this reflection is available to us in the letters which he wrote during the war, and a variety of lectures and papers. His ideas, therefore, have a general interest to students of international theory.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © British International Studies Association 1975

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References

page 48 note 1. Bernard Bosanquet to Professor Hoernle, 24 Jan. 1915, Muirhead, J. H. (ed.), Bernard Bosanquet and hisfriends, 1935, p. 163Google Scholar.

page 48 note 2. ‘He was wholeheartedly on the side of the Allies, and detested the crime of Germany. …But he steadily refused to admit that we had therefore no responsibility in the matter’, Bosanquet, Helen, Bernard Bosanquet, 1924, p. 136Google Scholar.

page 49 note 1. Sidgwick, Eleanor, ‘The Morality of Strife in Relation to the War’, The International Crisis in its Ethical and Psychological Aspects (henceforthInternational Crisis) , 1915, p. 14Google Scholar. Treitschke earned considerable abuse in England and interest in his work provoke d commentaries, e.g. the balanced treatment by Davis, H. W. C.. The Political Thought of Heinrich von Treitschke, 1914Google Scholar. Cf. Muirhead, J. H., German Philosophy and the War, 1914Google Scholar.

page 49 note 2. Bradley, A. C., ‘Bernard Bosanquet, 1848–1923’, Proceedings of the British Academy, xi, (1924) p. 8Google Scholar.

page 49 note 3. The Philosophical Theory of the State, 1920, pp. xi–xiiGoogle Scholar.

page 49 note 4. Ibid.,

page 49 note 5. ‘Patriotism in the Perfect State’,International Crisis, p. 132.

page 50 note 1. M. Richter,The Politics of Conscience, 1964, pp. 269–70, andcf. his view that Bright's arguments ‘Green accepted and repeated with little variation’,op. cit. p . 275.

page 50 note 2. Nettleship, R. L. (ed.), Lectures on the Principles of Political Obligation, Works, ii. 1906, p. 484Google Scholar.

page 50 note 3. To R. C. Bosanquet, his nephew, J. H. Muirhead (ed.),op. cit. p. 311.

page 50 note 4. T. H. Green,he. cit. pp. 476–7.

page 51 note 1. Ibid., p. 484.

page 51 note 2. International Crisis, p. 148.

page 51 note 3. Social and International Ideals, 1917, p. 316Google Scholar.

page 51 note 4. Ibid., p. 478.

page 51 note 5. Ibid., p. 303.

page 52 note 1. The Philosophical Theory of the State, p . xlvii.

page 52 note 2. International Crisis, p. 153.

page 52 note 3. The Philosophical Theory of the State, p. xlv.

page 52 note 4. Idem. p. xlvii.

page 52 note 5. Brougham, Lord, Essay on ‘The Balance of Power’, Works of Henry Lord Brougham, 1972, viiiGoogle Scholar.

page 52 note 6. The Philosophical Theory of the State, p. xlvi.

page 52 note 7. Social and International Ideals, p. 278.

page 53 note 1. International Crisis, pp. 68–70. Bradley mentioned one further difficulty, that ‘the easiest and the most tempting course would generally be to discourage change and maintain the status quotes. Helen Bosanquet commented on her husband's attitude to the prospect of international organizations appearing after the War, ‘at one time he had no great belief in the possibility of an effective League of Nations, but later on he became a convinced supporter of it’, Muirhead, however, endorsed the impression of deep scepticism,cf. below, p. 8.

page 53 note 2. J. H. Muirhead,op. cit. p. 191.

page 53 note 3. Social and International Ideals, p. 306.

page 53 note 4. Ibid.,

page 53 note 5. Ibid., p. 279.

page 53 note 6. International Crisis, p. 143.

page 53 note 7. Ibid., p. 149.

page 53 note 8. Ibid., p. 60.

page 54 note 1. Ibid., p. 64, n. i.

page 54 note 2. Ibid., p. 64.

page 54 note 3. Social and International Ideals, p. 300.

page 54 note 4. Ibid., p. 43.

page 54 note 5. M. Richter,op. cit. p. 113.

page 54 note 6. T . H. Green,op. cit. p. 473.

page 55 note 1. Ibid., p. 473.

page 55 note 2. M. Richter,op. cit. p. 113.

page 55 note 3. T. H. Green,op. cit. p. 473.

page 55 note 4. J. H. Muirhead,op. cit. p. 165.

page 55 note 5. Ibid., p. 171.

page 55 note 6. Ibid., p. 165.

page 55 note 7. International Crisis, pp. 64–65.

page 56 note 1. Ibid.,

page 56 note 2. Ibid.,

page 56 note 3. Ibid.,

page 56 note 4. Ibid., p. 154.Cf. A. C. Bradley's observation that in the event of the destruction of Germany as a major European state ‘it is very far from clear that the political situation as regards the balance of power in Europe .would be at all improved’,Ibid., p. 129.

page 56 note 5. Ibid., p. 146.

page 56 note 6. Ibid., p. 136.

page 56 note 7. Heinrich von Treitschke,Lectures on Politics, Book iv, Chapter xxviii, reprinted in Forsyth, M. G., Keens-Soper, H. M. A., Savigear, P. (ed.), The Theory of International Relations, 1970, p. 332Google Scholar.

page 56 note 8. Social and International Ideals, p. 12.

page 57 note 1. Ibid., pp. 13–15.

page 57 note 2. Ibid., p. 339.

page 57 note 3. International Crisis, p. 135.

page 57 note 4. Treitschke,Ibid., p. 347. Treitschke adds that the very distinction between soldiers and private citizens enables warring states to take cognizance of private property and values, Ibid., p. 349.

page 57 note 5. Ibid., p. 340,

page 57 note 6. Ibid., pp. 137 and 143.

page 58 note 1. J. H. Muirhead,op. cit. p. 164.

page 58 note 2. International Crisis, pp. 149–50.

page 58 note 3. Treitschke,op. cit. p. 340.

page 58 note 4. Ibid., p. 346.

page 58 note 5. J. H. Muirhead,op. cit. p. 166.

page 58 note 6. International Crisis p. 65.

page 58 note 7. T. H . Green,op, cit. p. 479.

page 58 note 8. International Crisis, p. 64.

page 59 note 1. Ibid., p .151.

page 59 note 2. Ibid., p. 153.