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.