Alfred William Benn

Alfred William Benn was a British historian of philosophy who wrote comprehensive surveys of European thought. His History of Modern Philosophy, published at the turn of the twentieth century, traced the development of philosophy from the Renaissance through the empiricists and idealists to the experimental science of his own time.

Benn's study was valued in its day as a rare one-volume synthesis combining erudition with readable narrative. A scholar of both British empiricism and continental idealism, he wrote for the student and the general reader, and his survey remained a respected reference in philosophical libraries for decades.