He worked independently, while forgoing academic affiliation. He was acknowledged by William James as a forerunner of Pragmatism, although he viewed his work as a completion of Kant's project. He regarded a poets William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge as his chief inspirations, & experienced there is no academic background, though he was the member of the Metaphysical Society.

His main act was A Metaphysic of Personal experience (1898) which prepared the way for Future Realism. He objected to the stance of empiricism in its postulating of persons & items, & insisted that neither subject nor object come warranted when initial considerations of philosophy.