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Benjamin Paul Blood | |
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| Born | (1832-11-21)November 21, 1832 Amsterdam, New York |
| Died | January 15, 1919(1919-01-15) (aged 86) |
| Era | 19th-/20th-century philosophy |
| Region | Western philosophy |
Main interests | |
Notable ideas | Pluriverse |
Benjamin Paul Blood (November 21, 1832 – January 15, 1919) was anAmerican philosopher,mystic andpoet. His idiosyncratic work explored his development of hispluralist philosophy, culminating in the posthumously published bookPluriverse.[1]
He was born inAmsterdam, New York. His father, John Blood, was a prosperous landowner. Blood was known as an intelligent man but an unfocused one. Initially, his writing consisted of letters, either to local newspapers or to friends such asJames Hutchison Stirling,Alfred Tennyson andWilliam James.Ralph Barton Perry wrote of Blood:
He was born in 1832 and lived for eighty-six years. During that time he wrote much, but unsystematically. His favorite form of publication was letters to newspapers, mainly local newspapers with a small circulation. These letters "dealt with an astonishing diversity of subjects, from local petty politics or the tricks of spiritualist mediums to principles of industry and finance and profundities of metaphysics."[2]
Early books includedThe Philosophy of Justice Between God and Man (1851) andOptimism: The Lesson of Ages (1860), a Christian mystical vision of the pursuit of happiness from Blood's distinctly American perspective; on the title page of the book, Blood described it as "A compendium of democratic theology, designed to illustrate necessities whereby all things are as they are, and to reconcile the discontents of men with the perfect love and power of ever-present God." During his lifetime he was best known for his poetry, which includedThe Bride of the Iconoclast,Justice, andThe Colonnades. According to Christopher Nelson, Blood was a direct influence on William James'The Varieties of Religious Experience[3] as well on James's concept ofSciousness, prime reality consciousness without a sense of self.[4]
After experiencing theanestheticnitrous oxide during a dental operation, Blood concluded that the gas had opened his mind to new ideas and continued experimenting with it. In 1874, he published a 37-page pamphlet,The Anesthetic Revelation and the Gist of Philosophy.[5]
He married twice; to Mary Sayles, and following her death, to Harriet Lefferts. He had six children from the first marriage, and a daughter from the second. Blood died in Amsterdam, New York. His final work,Pluriverse, was published posthumously.
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