Abstract This essay examines the “character” of Leslie Stephen’s agnosticism. It mainly considers “An Agnostic’s Apology” (1876), deemed by many the first written defence of agnosticism, but also assesses his other works of controversy, especially his multiple attacks upon the theologian F.D. Maurice. The central claim is that Stephen did not only advocate a certain set of arguments in his agnostic writings but also recommended, by means of tone, style, and voice, a “character” about how a thinker ought to go about “not knowing” God. In contrast to more theistic versions of agnosticism popular at the time, this character was an uncompromising, “muscular,” and bracing “not knowing” that strove towards disagreeable “realities” rather than shying away from them, and which refused to venerate anything approximating the supernatural.
Samuel Webb (2026) studied this question.