'PHILOSOPHY, or the doctrine and discipline of ideas' as S. T. Coleridge understood it, is the theme of this book. It considers the most vital and mature vein of Coleridge's thought to be 'the contemplation of ideas objectively, as existing powers'. A theory of ideas emerges in critical engagement with thinkers including Plato, Plotinus, Bohme, Kant, and Schelling. A commitment to the transcendence of reason, central to what he calls 'the spiritual platonic old England', distinguishes him from his German contemporaries. The book also engages with Coleridge's poetry, especially in a culminating chapter dedicated to the 'Limbo' sequence.
This book pursues a theory of contemplation that draws from Coleridge's theories of imagination and the 'Ideas of Reason' in his published texts and extensively from his thoughts as they developed throughout unpublished works, fragments, letters, and notebooks. He posited a hierarchy of cognition from basic sense intuition to the apprehension of scientific, ethical, and theological ideas. The structure of the book follows this thesis, beginning with sense data, moving upwards into aesthetic experience, imagination, and reason, with final chapters on formal logic and poetry that constellate the contemplation of ideas.
Coleridge's Contemplative Philosophy is not just a work of history of philosophy, it addresses a figure whose thinking is of continuing interest, arguing that contemplation of ideas and values has consequences for everyday morality and aesthetics, as well as metaphysics. The volume will be of interest to philosophers, intellectual historians, scholars of religion, and of literature.
Industry Reviews
[Cheyne] is engaged in the process of returning to us a Coleridge that few of us come into contact with ... in his excellent book Coleridge's Contemplative Philosophy. Cheyne's truly impressive book makes substantial demands upon its readers, but this is to be expected given the far more extensive demands of the material it engages.... The result is a volume that stands out from what is often a superfluity of literature on Coleridge that confronts the reader who attempts to gain an understanding of his complex, yet fecund thought. * Alexander J. B. Hampton, Christianity & Literature *
[S]eeks to provide a future direction for philosophy studies by re-examining, and creating a schema for, Coleridge's understanding of intuitive reason across his life and works. Cheyne ... show[s] the development of his philosophical ideals and how they came together to form his final philosophy of ideas in relation to contemplation....[C]hapter 11 deals directly with Coleridge's little-discussed 'Limbo' poems from 1811. Read in the light of Coleridge's 'metaphysics of ideas', these poems are used to showcase Coleridge's ability to move between translucent and transparent stages of contemplation. * Emily Dolive and Shane Greentree, The Year's Work in English Studies *
Coleridge's Contemplative Philosophy is a smart and well-argued book, and it makes important contributions to diverse fields surrounding Coleridge studies. Chapters are rich with examples of ways Coleridge's thought emerges from classical antiquity, read through medieval mystical theology, and put into dialogue with some of the major thinkers of modern philosophy (particularly Kant, Schelling, and Hegel). * Daniel Larson, The Coleridge Bulletin *
This book provides an extensive road map to many of the highways and byways Coleridge wandered down in both prose and poetry, and it does so without ever losing sight of the ultimate goal of the journey: a philosophy of contemplative ideas, an ideal-realism that brought together these many disparate influences. For Cheyne, Coleridge is a thinker of the first rank, whose achievement ... could have great value for the future direction of philosophy. ... [A] dazzling display of scholarship on Coleridge's ... poetic logic ... that facilitates noetic contemplation. * Dale E. Snow, Loyola University of Maryland, Journal of the History of Philosophy *
[C]omes closer than any other scholarly work... to examining... Coleridge's fifty-volume oeuvre in light of ... his classical, medieval, and modern sources... [D]espite incredible philosophical range, Coleridge's Contemplative Philosophy... is... free of jargon ... and Coleridge's thought suddenly appears clear and easy... [The] chapters discussing the sense... of beauty are themselves quite beautiful... [I]nterestingly reopens the question of the tenor of Coleridge's later political thought... [W]ill certainly be clarifying for Coleridge scholars and Romanticists. It will no doubt be important for those interested in the aesthetics of the everyday and nineteenth-century British philosophy as well. * Charity Ketz, Pennsylvania State University, State College, European Romantic Review *
[A] a remarkable gathering together of ... Coleridge's ... philosophy of the imagination, symbols, ideas, and reason....[A]nother strength of this book: it is simply enjoyable to read. Cheyne's prose is clear without sacrificing depth.... he lays out Coleridge's ideas with ease and skill.... [An] excellent contribution to Coleridgean scholarship. It is also a worthy read for anyone wishing to explore contemplative philosophy, Christian Platonism, and the intersection between the imagination, noetic reason, sacramentality, and everyday experience. * James Smoker, St Andrews University, Literature and Theology *
Cheyne combines precision in his accounts of Coleridge's meaning with a welcome breadth of mind that avoids rejoicing in Coleridge's presumed contradictions. * Ronald C. Wendling, The Wordsworth Circle *
Out of a mass of material, scattered and hard to assimilate, Cheyne wrests a clear and comprehensive interpretation. It is a great achievement, an important book. * James Engell, Harvard University, The Expository Times *
Coleridge's Contemplative Philosophy will appeal not only to literary scholars, but also to philosophers, theologians and intellectual historians alike, acting itself as an aid to reflection on the three designated periods of Coleridge's intellectual development. The scope of the study is both wide and comprehensive, demanding close and purposeful analysis in equal measure. However, the reward for this effort is an original and insightful study that has rightly given Coleridge his due, by situating him back in the upper echelons of Enlightenment philosophy. * Wayne Deakin, Review of English Studies *
a magnificent book that makes enormous intellectual demands upon its reader but will amply repay the closest scrutiny.... Cheyne now gives us the rich harvest of his study of Coleridge's way of thinking in a monograph which will stand out in the midst of the vast library of critical works on the subject...Coleridge ... explore[d] in remarkable detail and with philosophical precision, a way of thinking, a contemplative noetic, that Peter Cheyne reveals to those who are prepared to work with his very fine book. It is to be hoped that they are many who will do so .... We still have much to learn from Coleridge. Cheyne has proved a fine teacher in our schooling. * David Jasper, International Journal for the Study of the Christian Church *
This erudite study shows that Coleridge made important contributions not only to literature and poetry but also to the history of English-speaking philosophy. Cheyne shows how Coleridge created a coherent philosophical system, 'ideal realism', which combines aspects of empiricism, Kantian and post-Kantian idealism, mysticism, and Platonism. * Alison Stone, Lancaster University *
An analysis of Coleridge's philosophy by a professional philosopher that is new and extremely rewarding. It proceeds logically through adept phrasing and deft explanations, uncluttered by undue attention to positions Coleridge outgrew. Always sympathetic and succinct, it both illuminates and asks to be argued with at a commensurate high level of discussion. * Jim Mays, University College Dublin *
Cheyne's discussion of Coleridge's modified Platonism is impressive both in the breadth of its erudition and depth of its interpretations * Kenneth Dorter, author of The Transformation of Plato's Republic *
Comprehensive and evinces a deep knowledge and careful thinking-through--and it's beautifully written: always clear and elegant. * Tim Fulford, De Montfort University *
Peter Cheyne's book on Coleridg's Contemplative Philosophy confronts Coleridge's thought in the round. Evidence for what Coleridge means at any one time is drawn from all stages of his thinking. * Paul Hamilton, Queen Mary, University of London, Romanticism *
Coleridge lived at a post-Kantian philosophical moment when it was claimed that any experience was something we could have an experience of... Peter Cheyne's book shows that Coleridge's ideas, ever proliferating, ever renewing the self he himself contemplated at so many different levels. * Paul Hamilton, Queen Mary, University of London *
