Hocking, William Ernest (1873–1966)

US philosopher whose 1904 dissertation grew into his major work, The Meaning of God in Human Experience 1912, which expounded a religiously oriented idealistic metaphysics opening toward mysticism. He also wrote on political philosophy, notably in The Spirit of World Politics 1932. After teaching at Yale 1908–14, and elsewhere, he spent most of his career at Harvard 1914–43; during a long retirement in New Hampshire he continued to philosophize.

Born in Cleveland, Ohio, into a devout family of modest means, he spent a decade working his way through college, then studied philosophy at Harvard under Josiah Royce and others.