"As a philosopher Stout is quite difficult to situate. His relation to English Idealism is complicated. We know that he advanced a position that Metz describes as ‘a “meeting” of pragmatist, realist and idealist motives’. Metz goes on to label Stout either an ‘old realist’ or a ‘new realist’ but definitely not an idealist. Passmore, more accurately, describes Stout as ‘pre-eminently … a philosopher of the middle way’. It is in this way that Stout is usually painted by much of the literature – a philosopher who was interested in reconciliation and compromise. This I think is true of his philosophy after about 1900."