Theories of Existence

by T.L.S. Sprigge

Presents a unified sequence of essays each of which examines metaphysical solutions to their best advantage.

Genres: Philosophy

192 pages, Paperback

First published May 7, 1985

About the author

Timothy L.S. Sprigge studied at Gonville and Caius, Cambridge, where he was awarded a First in English in 1955 and, in 1961, a PhD for a dissertation entitled 'The Limits of Morals Defined'. He did National Service in the Intelligence Corps.

He was lecturer in philosophy at University College London from 1961 to 1963, then at the University of Sussex from 1963 to 1970, when he was promoted to a readership.

From 1979 he was Professor of Logic and Metaphysics at Edinburgh University until 1989, when he became Professor Emeritus, then an endowment fellow until 1998 and an honorary fellow until 2003.

Reviews

[Jean-françois Virey]

I am giving this book a five-star rating, though it is much less advanced or deep than the other books by Sprigge I have read so far, simply because I found it to be a very clear and charitable presentation of the "theories of existence" Sprigge has chosen to discuss. This could serve very nicely as a first book to get someone interested in philosophy. Be warned though that Sprigge largely paraphrases the philosophers he covers, often giving us the best version he himself can come up with of their ideas, rather than an "originalist" reading of their writings. This was fine by me, because I find him more interesting anyway than most of the philosophers he samples (and in particular Heidegger, the chapter on whom failed to rescue me from my absolute lack of interest in him.)

[Matija V]

I have a picky list of criticisms for the structure of the book, particularly the choices made about what "theories of existence" merit deep consideration... but generally I found the arguments & speculation refreshingly deeper then is common "these days".

as my first reading of Sprigge, delighted was I to discover a contemporary thinker who managed to avoid the trashbin of flatland scientific reductionism or ironical postmodernism... I mean in particular to highlight his exploration of idealism; its largely unexplored beauty & coherence & rationality... I submit (pretentiously, sure) that it takes a fluid & intuitive intellect to appreciate the subtleties of idealism; to see how it is still a nourishing fountain of profound insight. as physicalists we become petrified by materialistic biases assumed to be common sense, biases that prevent an exploration into this territory. often idealism is disregarded as silly solipsism and spiritualism, entirely "disproven" by science & materialism. a casual glance at the philosophy of mind as debated today will hardly "prove" this.

what has become very apparent to me is that the field [philosophy of mind & ontology] is moving towards a gradual realization that "panpsychism" must be true in some form, and that this will be the desperately needed supplement to the empty flatland view of scientific materialism... this flatland view offers us a conjectural universe of wholly exterior objects. this makes absolute nonsense of the world we clearly inhabit; we vividly exist in a world of diverse interior depths, irreducibly subjective (but of course w/ exterior correlates that are not ontologically distinct substances). panpsychism integrates, in a [potentially] sophisticated way, both the physicalist exterior descriptions of nature & the idealists' insistence on the ubiquity of experience. when it comes down to it, materialism offers little more then a "temporalized dualism", to borrow Hartshorne's term.

Sprigge is a clear sympathizer to this movement towards panpsychism. his articulation of the idea is minimal and related to particular "theories of existence", but I think the reader will come out appreciating panpsychism as a significant thread common to these theories of existence. this is something worth pondering. David Skrbina's book shows just how extensive this interest in panpsychism has been for the western intellectual tradition. here in this book panpsychism is shown by Sprigge to be an important part of idealism's intelligibility, as well as the intelligibility of Schopenhauer's view and (in a way not quite clear to me) Nietzsche's.

so my disappointments/criticisms? there should have been an entire chapter devoted to "panpsychism" since it would nicely complement the chapters on dualism, materialism, and idealism...although my guess is that Sprigge would make panpsychism a subset theory of idealism. this makes good sense but probably scares analytic thinkers away.

my main disappointment is that he didn't look at Whitehead's panpsychist cosmology at all, although he mentions it briefly as a panpsychist theory that isn't quite an idealism. the genius of Whitehead's work is this straddling between a scientific realism and an idealistic admission about experience. I would have loved to see Sprigge contrast it to Bradley's ideas, perhaps offer a bridge between the two. Whitehead's theory would have been worth so, so, so much more then the rambling, very disorienting overviews about existentialists like Sarte and Heidegger. the rambling disorientation is no doubt more due to those philosophers' obscurity then through any fault of Sprigge.

the chapters on dualism, materialism, and idealism are the most fruitful I think. I look forward to reading more of Sprigge where panpsychism and the Absolute of idealism is explored in more granularity. good stuff.

[Madeline Collins]

Summarizing such complex theories came at the expense of clarity. It was really hard to follow the run-on sentences and I would not recommend it as an introduction to these philosophers.