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The Cambridge Platonists in Philosophical Context THE CAMBRIDGE PLATONISTS IN PHILOSOPHICAL CONTEXT POLITICS, METAPHYSICS AND RELIGION ARCHIVES INTERNATIONALES D'HISTOIRE DES IDEES INTERNATIONAL ARCHIVES OF THE HISTORY OF IDEAS 150 THE CAMBRIDGE PLATONISTS IN PHILOSOPHICAL CONTEXT Politics, Metaphysics and Religion EDITED BY G.A.J. ROGERS, J.M. VIENNE AND Y.C. ZARKA Founding Directors: P. Dibonf (Paris) and R.H. Popkin (Washington University, St. Louis & UCLA) Directors: Brian Copenhaver (University of California, Los Angeles, USA), Sarah Hutton (The University of Hertfordshire, United Kingdom), Richard Popkin (Washington Univer- sity, St Louis & University of California, Los Angeles, USA) Editorial Board: J.F. Battail (Paris); F. Duchesneau (Montreal); A. Gabbey (New York); T. Gregory (Rome); J.D. North (Groningen); M.J. Petry (Rotterdam); J. Popkin (Lexington); Th, Verbeek (Utrecht) Advisory EditorialBoard: J. Aubin (paris); A. Crombie (Oxford); H. Gadamer (Heidelberg); H. Gouhier (paris); K. Hanada (Hokkaido University); W. Kirsop (Melbourne); P.O. Kristeller (Columbia University); E. Labrousse (Paris); A. Lossky (Los Angeles); J. Malarczyk (Lublin); J. Orcibal (Paris); W. ROd (MQnchen); G. Rousseau (Los Angeles); H. Rowen (Rutgers University, N.J.); J.P. Schobinger (Zurich); J. Tans (Groningen) THE CAMBRIDGE PLATONISTS IN PHILOSOPHICAL CONTEXT POLITICS, METAPHYSICS AND RELIGION edited by G. A. J. ROGERS University ofKeele, Keele . United Kingdom J. M. VIENNE Universite de Nantes. France and Y. C. ZARKA CNRS Paris. France Springer-Science+Business Media, B.V. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data The Cambr Idge Platonlsts In phi losophical context : po l t t t cs , metaphysics. and relIgion I edited by G.A.J. Rogers. J.M. Vlenne. and Y.C . Zarka. p . cm . (Arch Ives Internatlonales d'htstoire des Idees = Internat ional arch ives of the hIstory of Ideas; 150> EnglIsh and French . Includes b IblIograph Ical references and Index . 1. Cambridge Platon lsts. 2 . Philosophy, Engllsh--17th century. 3 . England--Intellectual llfe--17th century. I. Rogers . G. A. J. <Graham Alan John). 1938- II. Vlenne. Jean-MIchel. III. Zarka, Yves Char les . IV. Ser Ies : ArchIves Internattonales d'h tsto ire des i dees; 150. B1133.C2C292 1997 141' .2·094209032--dc21 97 -10318 ISBN 978-90-481-4844-8 ISBN 978-94-015-8933-8 (eBook) 001 10.1007/978-94-015-8933-8 Printed on acid-free paper All Rights Reserved © 1997 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht Originally published by Kluwer Academic Publishers in 1997. Softcover reprint ofthe hardcover 1st edition 1997 No part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the copyright owner. TABLE OF CONTENTS List ofContributors vii Abbreviations viii Introduction ix Jean Michel Vienne PART ONE Chapter I The Other-Worldly Philosophers and the Real World : The Cambridge Platonists, Theology and Politics G. A. J. Rogers 3 Chapter II Liberte et Verite: Politique et morale dans la correspondance hollandaise de More et de Cudworth Luisa Simonutti 17 Chapter III Critique de Hobbes et fondement de la morale chez Cudworth Yves-Charles Zarka 39 PART Two Chapter IV The Heritage of Patristic Platonism in Seventeenth- century English Philosophical Theology David W. Dockrill 55 Chapter V John Smith et Ie Portique Jacqueline Lagree 79 Chapter VI Cudworth, Boethius and the Scale of Nature Sarah Hutton 93 Chapter VII Ralph Cudworth, un platonisme paradoxal: La Nature dans la Digression concerning the Plastick Life ofNature Alain Petit 101 Chapter VIII Ixe$"v; et Relation : Du platonisme al'empirisme Jean-Michel Vienne 111 PART THREE Chapter IX The Role ofIlluminism in the Thought of Henry More Robert Crocker 129 v vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter X "La Nature est un art". Le vitalisme de Cudworth et de More Jean-Louis Breteau 145 Chapter XI Force, Motion and Causality: More's Critique of Descartes John Cottingham 159 Chapter XII Cudworth versus Descartes : platonisme et sens commun dans la critique des Meditations Marialuisa Baldi 173 PART FOUR Chapter XIII Les differentes lectures du System de Cudworth par G. W. Leibniz Andre Robinet 187 Chapter XIV Platonic Idealism in Modern Philosophy from Malebranche to Berkeley Stuart Brown 197 ApPENDIX Ralph Cudworth, Additional Manuscript n? 4981 (On the Nature of Liberum Arbitrium) introduced by J. L. Breteau 217 Bibliography 233 Index 245 LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS Marialuisa Baldi CN.R. Milano, ltalia Jean-Louis Breteau Universite de Toulouse-le -Mirail, France Stuart Brown The Open University, United Kingdom John Cottingham University ofReading, United Kingdom Robert Crocker The Flinders University, Australia David W. Dockrill Newcastle University, Australia Sarah Hutton University ofHertfordshire, United Kingdom Jacqueline Lagree Universite de Rennes, France Alain Petit Universite de Clermont-Ferrand, France Andre Robinet C.N.R.S. Paris, France; Universite Libre de Bruxelles, Belgique G. A. John Rogers University ofKeele, United Kingdom Luisa Simonutti CN.R. Milano Jean-Michel Vienne Universite de Nantes, France Yves Charles Zarka CN.R.S. Paris, France vii ABBREVIATIONS USED IN THIS VOLUME es.p.W. : More, Henry, A Collection ofSeveral Philosophical Writings, (London, 1662). D.D. : More, Henry, Divine Dialogues, (London, 1668). E.M. : More, Henry, Enchiridion Metaphysicum, (London, 1671). E.E. : More, Henry, Enchiridion Ethicum, (London, 1667) . E.T. : More, Henry, Enthusiasmus Triumphatus, (London, 1656). M.G. : More, Henry, An Explanation ofthe Grand Mystery ofGodliness, (London, 1660). T.E.I.M. : Cudworth, Ralph, A Treatise Concerning Eternal and Immutable Morality, (London, 1731). T.F. : Cudworth, Ralph, A Treatise ofFreewill, (ed. John Allen, London, 1838). T.1.S.U. : Cudworth, Ralph, The True Intellectual System ofthe Universe, (London , 1678). viii INTRODUCTION The Cambridge Platonists were defenders of tolerance in the political as well as the moral sphere; they held that practical judgement came down in the last instance to individual conscience; and they laid the foundations of our modern conceptions of conscience and liberty. But at the same time they maintained the existence of eternal truths, and of a Good-in-itself, identical with Truth and Being, refusing to admit that freedom of conscience implied moral relativism. They were critics of dogmatism, and of the sectarian notion of "enthusiasm" as a source of illumination, on the grounds that both were disruptive of social harmony; they pleaded the cause of reason, in the hope that it could become the foundation of all human knowledge. Yet, for all that, they maintained that a certain sort of mystical illumination lay at the heart of all true thought, and that human reason had validity only in virtue of its divine origin. They debated with Descartes and took a keen interest in his mechan- ism and his dualism; they brought the atomistic theories of Democritus back into repute; and they sought to provide a detailed account of the causality linking all phenomena. But at the same time they fought against every form of materialism and atheism; they constructed their universe on a finalistic model derived from Plato ; and they maintained that the world could be understood only on vitalist principles. Occupying a territory that lies between the system of Descartes and that of Leibniz, between rationalism and empiricism, between ancient and modern science, between religion and philosophy, the Cambridge Platonists were at the heart of the formation of modern thought, and many of their questions are still our own, even if their solutions are no longer accepted. Within the framework of inquiry of their time, they tried to bring together the most irreconcilable tendencies; and because of this, their ideas are far less monolithic, and far harder to classify, than those of their contemporaries, with the result that they have been largely forgotten in the history of philosophy. Moreover, the form in which they presented their views provides an obstacle for twentieth-century readers. The problem is one of style, of metaphorical language, of the elaborate erudition of their scholarship, and above all of the difficulty ofsubsuming their views under clear overarching principles. One must admit that the modern reader is often put off by the very diversity of the topics which the Cambridge Platonists addressed, so much so that the richness of their ideas can be lost sight of. But there is, for all that, a unifying thread - one that the contributors to this volume have tried to uncover, with the aim of restoring the Cambridge Platonists to the important place that belongs to them in the genesis of our modern culture. This should be particularly evident in the first four chapters of the book, which are devoted to morals, politics and religion. Hitherto, research on the Platonists has concentrated on their physics (with special reference to the IX G. A. J. Rogers et al (eds.), The Cambridge Platonists in Philosophical Context. ix-xiv . © 1997 Kluwer Academic Publishers. x INTRODUCTION correspondence between More and Descartes, and the relationship between More and Newton), while a more recent area of interest has been their metaphysics (espe- cially Cudworth 's "plastic nature"). The present work, by contrast, gives pride of place to the practical dimension, in the belief that it allows us to see important con- nections between their theories of knowledge, their physics and their metaphysics, and to reveal a coherence, or at any rate a certain harmony, in the positions they advanced. The terms in which the Platonists approached the practical side of their inquiries are sufficiently similar to our own to be quite accessible to the modern reader. What can be more bewildering is the theological aspect - the system of concepts and metaphors in terms of which their moral and political (and hence religious) preoc- cupations are worked out. These authors were committed to a pan-psychic vitalism which seems all the more foreign to us given that many texts from the same period are entirely free of such elements, and hence seem infinitely more accessible.
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