Francis Herbert Bradley Philosopher

I believe that the important ideas and philosophical views of Francis Herbert Bradley have influenced the lives of many people and how they view themselves as moral people. I believe that I can relate in ways that everyone is this world needs to go through one moment of self realization or self actualization to find out who or what they really are. There are many cases where people are confused about what they are supposed to do with their lives, or how they are to live them. Coming from experience, I didn't know what I wanted to do with my life after high school, so I started college in the field of nursing and after changing my major a few times I decided it was best for myself to continue with accounting. Self realization is a part of everyone's life, whether it's at one significant point in time or part of your everyday fulfilling life. "Francis Herbert Bradley (1846-1924) argued that satisfaction is possible only when one achieves self-realization - that is a harmonious integration of all one's desires. Only then can a person become a self, an individual" (Velasquez, p. 439). What is self realization? Is it a necessity of life? Personally, I think so.

F.H. Bradley was one of the very famous, original, and influential Philosopher's of the British Idealists. "Bradley argued that both pluralism and realism contained inherent contradictions and proposed instead a combination of monism, the concept that all reality is one and there are no separate "things;" and absolute idealism, the concept that reality consists entirely of ideas" (New World Encyclopedia, 2009). Before his life works Bradley was born at Clapham Surrey, England and was the fourth eldest surviving son of his father Charles Bradley, an evangelical preacher. Bradley faced many challenges in his early years involved in transferring universities, health problems, and determining which levels of philosophy to investigate further. Bradley's political views were categorized as conservative, and evidence of his writings proved that he appears to have been a free thinker, rather than convinced of his father's oppressive household evangelical teachings. At this point in time, what is right to be considered a free-thinker? Did Bradley decide to think on his own because he was realizing who he was or who he was becoming? There are so many ways to view these questions. Bradley could have seen for himself that he didn't believe what his father preached, or there could have been someone else influencing him to decide what was right for him to believe.

Bradley was widely known for his work with metaphysics. Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that treats of first principles, includes ontology and cosmology, and is intimately connected with epistemology. "According to Bradley, the goal of metaphysics is to understand reality and to find a way of thinking about reality that is not self-contradictory. Bradley once defined metaphysics as the "finding of bad reasons for what we believe on instinct."Reality is consistent and is compatible with its self. Whatever is inconsistent with itself is unreal" (Scott, 2001). Bradley concluded that appearances could be inconsistent and contradictory, but reality does not contradict itself. How do we know what we are viewing or witnessing is reality? Are we ready to label something as real just because it's happening or is it real because it's supposed to be classified as real? For example, is it not reality if someone is happy every single day without a care in the world? Is it not reality if a person can be without pain whether its physical or emotional all the time? Everyone views reality and their daily lives in their own way. We all have opinions and plans on how to live our time wisely, or what makes us happy and enjoy the time we have. I have to agree that reality isn't always the good thing. There can be many days where we want to sit and accomplish nothing, just live without doubt, stress, and pain. Does that really happen? Can anyone honestly say they wake up happy every day without a care in the world, or something picking at their mind? To some, it's a possibility but in my reality nothing is easy and nothing is basic. As for appearances, they can be deceiving or contradicting. We can view a person as being wonderful and trustworthy, but in the end we don't truly know that person. Their ideas and opinions can change their actions and how they handle certain situations. What are we supposed