- Cambridge Platonists
The Cambridge Platonists were a group of
philosopher s at Cambridge University in the middle of the 17th century (between 1633 and 1688).Programme
The Cambridge Platonists were reacting to two pressures. On the one hand, the dogmatism of the
Puritan divines, with their anti-rationalist demands, were, they felt, immoral and incorrect. They also felt that the Puritan/Calvinist insistence upon individual revelation left God uninvolved with the majority of mankind. At the same time, they were reacting against the materialist writings ofRené Descartes andThomas Hobbes . They felt that the latter, while properly rationalist, were denying the idealistic nature of the universe. To the Cambridge Platonists, religion and reason were in harmony, and reality was comprised not of sensation, but of "intelligible forms" that exist behindperception . Universal, ideal forms (a laPlato ) inform matter, and the senses are unreliable guides to reality.As divines and in matters of polity, the Cambridge Platonists argued for moderation. They believed that reason is the proper judge of all disagreements, and so they advocated dialogue between the Puritans and the High Churchmen. They had a mystical understanding of reason, believing that reason is not merely the sense-making facility of the mind, but, instead, "the candle of the Lord" - an echo of the divine within the human soul and an "imprint" of God within man. Thus, they believed that reason could lead beyond the sensory, because it is semi-divine. Reason was, for them, of God, and thus capable of nearing God. Therefore, they believed that reason could allow for judging the private revelations of Puritan theology and the proper investigation of the rituals and liturgy of the
Established Church . For this reason, they were calledlatitudinarian s.Representatives
*
Ralph Cudworth (1617–1688)
*Nathaniel Culverwel (1619–1651)
*Henry More (1614–1687)
* John Smith (1618–1652)
*Peter Sterry (1613–1672)
*Benjamin Whichcote (1609–1683)Works of the Cambridge Platonists
* Cudworth's chief philosophical work was "The True Intellectual System of the Universe" (1678) and the "Treatise concerning Eternal and Immutable Morality", which appeared posthumously in 1731.
* Culverwel's chief work was "Light of Nature" (1652). Culverwel died young (probably at the age of 32). He had intended to write a multi-part work reconciling theGospel with philosophical reason.
* Henry More (1614–1687) wrote many works. As a Platonist, his important works were "Manual of Ethics" (1666), the "Divine Dialogues" (1668), and the "Manual of Metaphysics" (1671). While all of More's works enjoyed popularity, the "Divine Dialogues" were perhaps most influential.
* John Smith, a student of Benjamin Whichcote, left no literary remains but was active in the discursive works of the other Platonists.
*Benjamin Whichcote (1609–1683) was one of the leaders of the movement, but he was also an active pastor and academic who did not publish in his lifetime. His sermons were notable and caused controversies, and Whichcote wrote a great deal without publishing. In 1685, "Some Select Notions of B. Whichcote" was published due to demand. After that was "Select Sermons" (1689) (with a preface by Shaftesbury) and "Several Discourses" (1701). Finally, a collection of his sayings appeared as "Moral and Religious Aphorisms" in 1703.External links
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