W. R. (William Ritchie) Sorley

Born in Selkirk, Scotland, in 1855, William Ritchie Sorley was educated at the University of Edinburgh and Trinity College, Cambridge. He went on to build a distinguished academic career in philosophy, becoming well known for his teaching as well as his writing.

Sorley taught at King’s College, Cambridge, and later served as Knightsbridge Professor of Moral Philosophy at Cambridge. His books explored ethics, philosophy of religion, and the history of moral thought, and he was part of the wider movement of British idealist philosophy.

He died in 1935. Today, he is remembered as a careful, serious philosopher whose work helped shape moral and metaphysical debate in his era.