Benjamin Paul Blood

21 November 1832 – 15 January 1919

An American philosopher, mystic and poet who spent his life in Amsterdam, New York. His pamphlet The Anæsthetic Revelation and the Gist of Philosophy (1874), drawn from his experiences under nitrous oxide, was taken up by William James, who called him “a pluralistic mystic”. His last book, Pluriverse, appeared in 1920, the year after his death.

works

1863

Napoleon I: A Historical Lecture

Blood's lecture on Napoleon, printed privately at Amsterdam, New York, in 1863, in the middle of the Civil War: a rhapsodic life of “the Soldier of Destiny” from Corsica to St.

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1920

Pluriverse: An Essay in the Philosophy of Pluralism

Blood's last book, published the year after his death: a pluralist's quarrel with the monists and idealists from Parmenides to Hegel, closing on the “anæsthetic revelation” he had first described in 1874, which William…

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