Abstract
Henry More contributed a great deal to the formation of the philosophy of the Enlightenment. He worked hard to sift the old verities; but he spoke so often in the name of Plato, and so often in the name of Descartes, that his voice was blurred in the years when it most needed to be heard. The Enlightenment, through the Royal Society, grew out of Descartes, and through the latitudinarian spirit, out of Plato. Once this had happened, More’s attempts to submit his fourth ground of certainty to the criteria of experimental science led naturally to the absurdities of contradiction between Descartes and Plato, and to grotesque confusion between mind and matter.1 Such a gothic conclusion to the career of a founder of the modem mind can only be explained by looking carefully at the origins of More’s philosophy.2
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Simon Patrick, A Brief Account of the New Sect of Latitud Men, together with some reflections on the new philosophy, in answer to a letter from his friend at Oxford. ed T. A. Birrell (“Augustan Reprint Society,” No, 100: Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1963 ), p. 5.
Descartes was being read from 1640 onwards, though the first translation did not appear until 1649. See M. H. Nicolson, “The Early Stage of Cartesianism in England.” Studies in Philology, XXVI (1929). 356–374.
John Wilkins, An Essay towards a Real Character and a philosophical Language ( London: S. Gellibrand and J. Martin, 1668 ). p. 194.
See Henry More, Philosophical Poems, ed. Geoffrey Bullough (Manchester: University Press, 1931), p. 205, note.
To the Reader (1647). Grosart, p. 7.
M. H. Nicolson. Studies in Philology, XXVI (1929), 365
John Smith, Select Discourses, ed. Henry Griffin Williams (4th ed.; Cambridge University Press, 1859 ), p. 1.
Paracelsus, The Hermetic and Alchemical Writings, ed. and trans. Arthur Edward Waite (2 vols.: London: J. Elliott. 1894). I. 161. Quoted in M H. Nicolson. The Breaking of the Circle: Studies in the Effect of the New Science upon 17th Century Poetry (rev. ed.; New York: Columbia University Press. 1960 ), p. 23.
Francis Bacon. The Advancement of Learning (London: Oxford University Press, 1906), II, x, 2, p. 127.
Enthusiasmus Triumphatus (1656). p. 33. in Philosophical Writings.
Sir Thomas Browne, Religio Medici, I, 34, in Works, ed Geoffrey Keynes (4 vols.; London: Faber and Faber. 1928), I. 44. Quoted in M. H. Nicolson, The Breaking of the Circle. p. 26.
Democritus Platonissans (1646), “To the Reader.” Ibid., p. 90.
Ralph Cudworth, The True Intellectual System of the Universe, ed and trans. John Harrbon (3 vols.; London: T. Tegg, 1845), I, 217.
Pierre Bayle, Nouvelles de la République des Lettres, April 1685, in Oeuvres Diverses (4 vols.; La Haye: P. Hutton etc., 1727–1731), I, 269. Poiret was a voluminous editor of French quietists. including the notorious Antoinette Bourignon
To the Reader (1647). Grosart, p. 7.
Henry More. The Immortality of the Soul ( London: W. Morden, 1659 ), p. 193.
John Ray, The Wisdom of God Manifested in the Works of Creation (London, 1691), p. 30.
Gottfried Wilhdm Leibniz, Die Philotophischen Schriften, ed. C. J. Gerhardt (7 vols.; Hildesheim: Olms Verlag, 1960). III. 217. This letter is dated 24 August 1697. It is quoted in Conway Letters, p. 456
See G. W. Leibniz and Samuel Clarke. The Leibniz-Clarke Correspondence, ed. H. G. Alexander (Manchester: University Press, 1956 ), Introduction.
G. W. Leibniz and S. Clarke. Correspondance Leibniz-Clarke. ed. André Robinet (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1957), p, 43. Thit letter is dated 6 December 1715.
The Present State of the Republic of Letters, ed A. Reid (18 vols.: London: William Innys, 1728–1736), VII (1731), pp. 66–69. 139–150. 196–203, 325–330.
Alexander Chalmers (ed.), The Works of the English poets from Chaucer to Cowper (21 vols.; London: J. Johnson, 1810 ), XIV, 254.
Henry St Jolin, Vitcount Bolingbroke. Works, ed. David Mallet (5 vols.; London, 1754 ).
Bayle, Nouvelles de la République des Lettres, May 1684, in Oeuvres Diverses, I, 58
See Aharon Lichtenstein, Henry More: The Rational Theology of a Cambridge Platonist ( Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1962 ), p. 183.
Dr More’s Letter to Mr Glanvill, 25 May 1678, in Joseph Glanvill, Sadducismus Triumphatus ( 4th ed.; London: A. Bettesworth etc., 1726 ), pp. 9–10.
Thomas Sprat, History of the Royal Society, ed. J. I. Cope and H. W. Jones ( St. Louis: Washington University Press, 1959 ), p. 340.
Letter to Lady Conway, 5 April 1658. Conway Letters, p. 147.
Letter to Lady Conway, 4 January 1662. Ibid., p. 198.
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1971 Martinus Nijhoff, The Hague, Netherlands
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Hoyles, J. (1971). Philosophy: Descartes and Plato. In: The Waning of the Renaissance 1640–1740. International Archives of the History of Ideas/ Archives internationales d’histoire des ideés, vol 39. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-3008-3_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-3008-3_2
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-010-3010-6
Online ISBN: 978-94-010-3008-3
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive