Hoernlé, Reinhold Friedrich Alfred (1880–1943)

Perhaps the best known of South African philosophers, Hoernlé was a member of the generation of students influenced by the early British idealists, such as Green, Caird, Bradley, and Bosanquet. Like many of his contemporaries, Hoernlé left Britain to pursue his career in some of the universities of the Empire, providing an opportunity for fruitful contact between the main currents of European philosophy and the cultures and traditions of his adopted country. Hoernlé sought to provide a systematic philosophy that could be applied to questions of social and public policy as well as politics. His position responds to trends in continental European philosophy and addresses some of the criticisms of idealism raised in the early twentieth century by Russell, Schiller, and the American ‘new realists’. Hoernlé’s most significant contribution, however, was in the application of liberal political thought to the multiethnic environment of South Africa. Although Hoernlé’s liberalism has been criticized for not providing an effective alternative to the then-current race relations in South Africa, in his time he was seen by many as a strong progressive force, and his analysis of pluralism and cultural diversity in the state bears on contemporary discussions of multiculturalism.