BRAY, Charles.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

The Philosophy of Necessity; or, the Law of Consequences; as Applicable to Mental, Moral, and Social Science. First edition of the Owenite intellectual's principal philosophical work, published amid the Chartist agitation. Bray argues for a continuity between moral and physical law, insisting that they are "as fixed and determinable" (preface) as each other, and from this develops a case for co-operation as a governing principle of social organization.A Coventry ribbon manufacturer by trade, Bray (1811-1884) was also a social reformer, philanthropist, and a keen follower of Robert Owen. His home, Rosehill, became a hub for radical debate and was visited by Owen, as well as by Herbert Spencer, Harriet Martineau, and Ralph Waldo Emerson. The "Rosehill Circle" also included the novelist George Eliot, who had befriended Bray's wife Caroline.

Found via Rare Books Intel, a search across rare-book dealers, auction houses and marketplaces worldwide.