Samuel Alexander

Alexander, Samuel 

Born Jan. 6, 1859, in Sydney; died Sept. 13, 1938, in Manchester. English philosopher, neorealist, and one of the founders of the idealistic theory of emergent evolution. The initial point of Alexander’s philosophy is the concept of “space-time” consisting of “point-instants” which must be viewed “not as physical electrons but as metaphysical elements” (Space, Time, and Deity, vol. 1, 1927, p. 325). According to Alexander, the multiformity of the world arises from “space-time” as a result of sudden leaps (emergence); to explain their ultimate reasons, Alexander arrives at the recognition of God (see “Some Explanations,” Mind, 1921, vol. 30, no. 120, p. 410).

REFERENCES

Voprosy filosofii, 1957, no. 1. (Articles by A. S. Bogomolov, E. F. Pomogaeva and P. S. Trofimov, and Maurice Cornforth).
Bogomolov, A. S. Ideia razvitiia ν burzh. filosofii XIX i XX v. Moscow, 1962, Chapter 5.
McCarthy, J. W. The Naturalism of Samuel Alexander. New York, 1948. (With bibliography.)