A Culture of Habit: Habitual Dispositions in Late Early Modern English Intellectual Thought
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A Culture of Habit: Habitual Dispositions in Late Early Modern English Intellectual Thought A dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the degree of PhD in History, by: Martin P. Walker, B.A., M.Sc. (Lancaster University, Utrecht University) Lancaster University, May (2019). 31404700 A Culture Of Habit Words: 80,325 To my Mother, For teaching me how to be a decent human being. & To Joe, A best friend who always gave me the best advice: “You’re not good enough for a PhD, Martin.” You are both never far from my mind. This is for you. ii 31404700 A Culture Of Habit Words: 80,325 Abstract This thesis examines the concept of ‘habit’ and notions of ‘habitual dispositions’ in late early modern English thought. It’s primary aim is to highlight the ways in which the process of acquiring habitual dispositions was an integral part of late Early Modern English intellectual life, which was founded upon the need to habituate the individual to internalise moral virtues and to govern their passions and actions so as to cultivate religious sociability, establish epistemological consensus, and maintain civil society. Chapter 1 presents a new reading of the concept of ‘right reason’ through a close examination of the works of Henry More and John Wilkins. Chapter 2 examines the notion of habitual dispositions in Restoration religion, focusing on how a group of loosely connected moderate divines attempted to fashion a religion that was founded on habitually acquired moral beliefs and dispositions. Chapter 3 then shifts the focus to the context of the new experimental philosophy, demonstrating how experimental philosophers such as Robert Boyle and Robert Hooke were preoccupied with cultivating good experimental habitual behaviour and dispositions. The fourth and final chapter, in light of the genealogy of habit that has been mapped out in the first three chapters, presents a new reading of John Locke’s educational programme. The broader aim of this thesis is to historicise the late-Early Modern English conception of habit as well as highlight its importance in English intellectual thought. A proper historicisation of late Early Modern English intellectual approaches to, and uses of habit will help us see that not only was habit viewed favourably, but that it was also a crucial part of intellectual life and could provide a safeguard against a multitude of pressing intellectual, religious, and civil problems that plagued the period. iii 31404700 A Culture Of Habit Words: 80,325 Contents Acknowledgements v Introduction 1 1. Henry More, John Wilkins, and the concept of ‘ Right Reason’ 41 I. Defining ‘Right Reason’ 43 II. Historiography 45 III. Context 47 IV. Henry More and John Wilkins 55 V. Intellectualism and Voluntarism 64 Conclusion 67 2. Acquired Habitual Beliefs and Dispositions in Restoration Religion 69 I. The emergence of moralism 74 II. The Restoration Religious Settlement 81 III. Latitudinarianism and Habit 84 IV. Habit in Restoration Religion 92 Conclusion 121 3. Habit and the New Experimental Philosophy 125 I. The Perfect Virtuoso 128 II. Historiography 133 III. Experimental Philosophy and the Cultivation of the Mind 141 IV. Robert Boyle 147 V. Robert Hooke 166 VI. Thomas Sprat’s History of the Royal Society 173 VII. John Hartciffe’s Revision of the Aristotelian Virtues 175 Conclusion 179 4. John Locke, Education, and Habitual Scepticism 184 I. Locke Scholars and Disciplinary Liberalism 188 II. Locke’s Programme of Education 195 III. Habit and Habituation in the Education 200 IV. Authority and Rebellion in the Education 206 V. Desire and Will in the Essay 216 VI. Habitual Scepticism 224 Conclusion 232 Conclusion 237 Bibliography 250 iv 31404700 A Culture Of Habit Words: 80,325 Acknowledgements There are a number of people without whom this thesis might not have been written, and to whom I am greatly indebted. Matthew Pawelski provided invaluable advice and consistent encouragement, as well as much needed gym therapy, conversation, and friendship throughout this long journey. My supervisor, Stephen Pumfrey, has been an incredible teacher and mentor to me, and I am extremely grateful for his support and guidance. His ongoing feedback, support, and encouragement, as well as his consistent pushing of my thinking, challenged me in all the right ways. His undergraduate courses at Lancaster on early modern science captivated me in ways I did not think possible and left a deep impression on my academic development. I would not be writing this acknowledgement without him or his inspirational courses. It was because of his teaching and guidance that I pursued a Master’s degree in the History and Philosophy of Science at Utrecht University in 2012. Returning to Lancaster in 2014 to begin my doctoral research under his supervision has been a pleasure from the beginning to the end. The opportunity to co-teach an undergraduate module together was, and continues to be a source of great pride. I hope you find some kind of satisfaction in this modest dissertation. Thanks for everything! I would also like to give a special mention to Mark Hutchinson who came aboard on the final stretch. He read the entire draft and provided detailed and thought-provoking feedback. His invaluable advice and guidance has greatly improved the overall quality of this work. I would also like to thank friends, colleagues and staff at Lancaster University’s History department. In particular, I am grateful to Corinna Peniston-Bird for giving me a final push when it was needed, and to Rebecca Sheppard for all her pastoral support throughout the difficult periods. I am eternally grateful. Finally, I would like to thank my father for his endless love, support and encouragement throughout the years. Thank you for always believing in me. v 31404700 A Culture Of Habit Words: 80,325 Introduction This thesis examines the role of ‘habit’ and ‘habituation’ in late Early Modern English intellectual life. It takes habit, in its broadest sense, to mean the procedural character of virtuous behaviour and dispositions and interprets it as a process of self-inspection that supposed the individual’s awareness of responsibility for their actions throughout the period that is under review. In other words, a process of continuous endeavour of training oneself into the habit of acting virtuously. By procedural, in this instance, I take to mean the methods by which the individual was to be habituated to internalise moral virtues and to govern their passions and actions. In this sense, this thesis explores how English intellectuals believed that most individuals governed their behaviour primarily through habitually acquired mental dispositions rather than through conscientious internal motivations. My concern primarily is to highlight the ways in which the process of acquiring habitual virtues was an integral part of late Early Modern English intellectual life, which was founded upon the need to habituate people to internalise moral virtues and to govern their passions and actions so as to maintain and cultivate religious sociability, epistemological consensus, and civil society. This thesis thus argues that late Early Modern English intellectuals were preoccupied with the concept of habit and the notion of habituation and that this preoccupation shaped the development of English religion, the new experimental philosophy as well as John Locke’s educational programme. Historians who have analysed late Early Modern English intellectual life have, for the most part, missed this deep-rooted concern with the cultivation of virtuous habits, habitual assent and habit itself, as well as how such habits crossed disciplinary boundaries and how they occupied a central place among the values that governed the human being’s life as an 1 31404700 A Culture Of Habit Words: 80,325 individual, as a member of English society, and as a creature in relation to its deity.1 These have been largely overlooked by scholarship on early modern religion, for example, because of its fixation on doctrine and confessional identity which has meant that the distinction between belief and practice has not been fully examined.2 This, of course, is an important dimension to consider not least because the English church, particularly throughout the seventeenth-century, was a ‘state church’ that was in a perpetual state of doctrinal, ceremonial, and disciplinary chaos, yet insisted on exacting obedience from its members through a continuous stream of ambiguous and contradictory directives regarding acceptable form of worship. Some historians, however, such as Kevin Sharpe, have argued for the value of an interdisciplinary expansion of the body of materials that historians examine and has recommended a broadly based cultural-historical approach to religion in the early modern period: “The subject of religion in seventeenth-century culture and politics calls out for…an interdisciplinary approach.”3 Sharpe has insisted that, in the early modern period, “Religion was not just about doctrine, liturgy or ecclesiastical government; it was a language, an aesthetic, a structure of meaning, an identity, a politics.”4 Similarly, as Ken Jackson and Arthur F. Marotti have suggested, religion was also “a deeply psychological and emotional experience, a core moral commitment, a personally and socially crucial way of transvaluing human experience and desire, a reality both within and beyond the phenomenal world.”5 With these observations in mind, this thesis will focus on the very psychology of belief, and 1 See, for example, Barbara Shapiro, “Early Modern Intellectual Life: Humanism, Religion and Science in Seventeenth Century England,” History of Science, 29, (1991): pp. 45-71. 2 For more insight into this, see Ken Jackson and Arthur F. Marotti, “The Turn to Religion in Early Modern English Studies,” Criticism, Vol. 46, No. 1, (Winter 2004): pp. 167-190, p. 169. 3 Kevin Sharpe, Remapping Early Modern England (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), p. 389. 4 Ibid., p. 12.