Timothy Lauro Squire Sprigge (14 January 1932 – 11 July 2007), usually cited as T. L. S. Sprigge, was a British idealist philosopher who spent the latter portion of his career at the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...

, where he was Professor of Logic and Metaphysics, and latterly an Emeritus Fellow.

Biography

Sprigge was educated at the

Dragon School ("Reach for the Sun") , established = 1877 , closed = , type = Preparatory day and boarding school and Pre-Prep school , religion = Church of England , president = , head_label = Head , head = Emma Goldsm ...

, Oxford, and

Bryanston School Bryanston School is a public school (English independent day and boarding school for pupils aged 13–18) located next to the village of Bryanston, and near the town of Blandford Forum, in Dorset in South West England. It was founded in 1928 ...

in Dorset. He studied English at

Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge Gonville and Caius College, often referred to simply as Caius ( ), is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1348, it is the fourth-oldest of the University of Cambridge's 31 colleges and one of th ...

(1952–1955), then switched to philosophy, completing his PhD under

A. J. Ayer Sir Alfred Jules "Freddie" Ayer (; 29 October 1910 – 27 June 1989), usually cited as A. J. Ayer, was an English philosopher known for his promotion of logical positivism, particularly in his books '' Language, Truth, and Logic'' (1936) ...

. He taught philosophy at

University College, London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = � ...

and

Sussex University , mottoeng = Be Still and Know , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £14.4 million (2020) , budget = £319.6 million (2019–20) , chancellor = Sanjeev Bhaskar , vice_chancellor = Sasha Roseneil , ...

before becoming Regius Professor of Logic and Metaphysics at the University of Edinburgh. Long concerned with the nature of experience and the relationship between mind and reality, Sprigge was the philosopher who first posed the question made famous by

Thomas Nagel Thomas Nagel (; born July 4, 1937) is an American philosopher. He is the University Professor of Philosophy and Law Emeritus at New York University, where he taught from 1980 to 2016. His main areas of philosophical interest are legal philosophy, ...

: "What is it like to be a bat?"Jane O'Grady
"Timothy Sprigge"
''The Guardian'', 4 September 2007. Throughout his career he argued that physicalism or materialism is not only false, but has contributed to a distortion of our moral sense. The failure to respect the rights of human beings and non-human animals is therefore largely a metaphysical error of failing to grasp the true reality of the first person, subjective perspective of consciousness, or sentience. The practice of vivisection, which gained wide acceptance with Descartes's view of animals as machines, would be an example of this failure. He was an advocate of

animal rights Animal rights is the philosophy according to which many or all sentient animals have moral worth that is independent of their utility for humans, and that their most basic interests—such as avoiding suffering—should be afforded the sa ...

and defended an environmental ethic. The author of ''The Vindication of Absolute Idealism'' (1984), Sprigge defended a panpsychist version of

absolute idealism Absolute idealism is an ontologically monistic philosophy chiefly associated with G. W. F. Hegel and Friedrich Schelling, both of whom were German idealist philosophers in the 19th century. The label has also been attached to others such as Josi ...

, according to which reality consists of bits of experience combined into a certain kind of coherent whole. His work presents several new arguments in favor of the plausibility of such an account. He also defended a version of determinism in which all moments of time are intrinsically present and only relatively past or future. Time is unreal, he argued. What we experience as temporal transition is an illusion. Though a skeptic of traditional theism, Sprigge considered himself a believer in an impersonal God. He would eventually become a Unitarian. In his last book, ''The God of Metaphysics'' (2006), he argued for the existence of a "God of Philosophers" worthy of worship. Sprigge's metaphysics is a creative synthesis of

Spinoza Baruch (de) Spinoza (born Bento de Espinosa; later as an author and a correspondent ''Benedictus de Spinoza'', anglicized to ''Benedict de Spinoza''; 24 November 1632 – 21 February 1677) was a Dutch philosopher of Portuguese-Jewish origin, b ...

F. H. Bradley Francis Herbert Bradley (30 January 1846 – 18 September 1924) was a British idealist philosopher. His most important work was ''Appearance and Reality'' (1893). Life Bradley was born at Clapham, Surrey, England (now part of the Greater ...

William James William James (January 11, 1842 – August 26, 1910) was an American philosopher, historian, and psychologist, and the first educator to offer a psychology course in the United States. James is considered to be a leading thinker of the lat ...

George Santayana Jorge Agustín Nicolás Ruiz de Santayana y Borrás, known in English as George Santayana (; December 16, 1863 – September 26, 1952), was a Spanish and US-American philosopher, essayist, poet, and novelist. Born in Spain, Santayana was raised ...

and

Alfred North Whitehead Alfred North Whitehead (15 February 1861 – 30 December 1947) was an English mathematician and philosopher. He is best known as the defining figure of the philosophical school known as process philosophy, which today has found applicat ...

. Because of his metaphysical monism, panpsychism and rigid determinism, he has been called "Spinoza reincarnated in the twentieth century." Leemon McHenry, "Timothy L. S. Sprigge," ''British Philosophers, 1800-2000'', Volume 262 in the series ''Dictionary of Literary Biography'', edited by Philip B. Dematteis, Peter S. Fosl, and Leemon McHenry, Detroit: Gale, 2002, pp. 266-274. A

Festschrift In academia, a ''Festschrift'' (; plural, ''Festschriften'' ) is a book honoring a respected person, especially an academic, and presented during their lifetime. It generally takes the form of an edited volume, containing contributions from the h ...

for Sprigge appeared on the day he died, ''Consciousness, Reality and Value: Essays in Honour of T. L. S. Sprigge'' (Ontos Verlag). He was president of the Aristotelian Society from 1991 to 1992 and Fellow of the

Royal Society of Edinburgh The Royal Society of Edinburgh is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity that operates on a wholly independent and non-partisan basis and provides public benefit throughout Scotland. It was established i ...

. The Timothy Sprigge Room at the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities at the University of Edinburgh contains Sprigge's library. The Sprigge Archive is located at the Edinburgh University Library.

Works

* ''The Correspondence of Jeremy Bentham'' (1968) * ''Facts, Words and Beliefs. International Library of Philosophy and Scientific Method'' (1970) * ''Santayana: An examination of his philosophy (The Arguments of the philosophers)'' (1974) * ''The Vindication of Absolute Idealism'' (1984) * ''Theories of Existence'' (1985) * ''The Rational Foundation of Ethics'' (1988) * ''The significance of Spinoza's determinism (Mededelingen vanwege het Spinozahuis)'' (1989) * ''James and Bradley: American Truth and British Reality'' (1994) * ''The God of Metaphysics'' (2006) * ''The Phenomenology of Thought'' ed by. L. McHenry (unfinished) (2009) * ''The Importance of Subjectivity: Selected Essays in Metaphysics and Ethics'' ed by. L. McHenry (2011)

References

External links

Career, bibliography, poems

''Telegraph'' obituary
* ''Scotsman''br>obituary
* Pierfrancesco Basile and Leemon McHenry (eds.),
Consciousness, Reality and Value: Essays in Honor of T.L.S. Sprigge
', 2007. (330 p. ; ) {{DEFAULTSORT:Sprigge, Timothy L.S. 1932 births 2007 deaths 20th-century British philosophers Philosophers of mind 21st-century British philosophers Academics of the University of Edinburgh Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Analytic philosophers Animal rights scholars Consequentialists Utilitarians Panpsychism Presidents of the Aristotelian Society Idealists