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The Cambridge Platonists

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Stanford Encyclopedia The Cambridge Platonists were a group of English seventeenth-century

thinkers associated with the University of Cambridge. The most important
of Philosophy philosophers among them were Henry More (1614-1687) and Ralph
Cudworth (1617-1689), both fellows of Christ's College, Cambridge. The
group also included Benjamin Whichcote (1609-1683), Peter Sterry
(1613-1672), John Smith (1618-1652), Nathaniel Culverwell (1619-
1651), John Worthington (1618-1671), all one-time fellows of Emmanuel
College, Cambridge. Their younger followers included George Rust (d.
Edward N. Zalta Uri Nodelman Colin Allen John Perry
1670), Anne Conway (1630-1679) and John Norris (1657-1711). In so far
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as they all held the philosophy of Plato and Plotinus in high regard, the
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http://plato.stanford.edu/board.html designation ‘Platonist’ is apt. However, they drew on a wide range of
philosophical sources besides Platonism. Among ancient philosophers,
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they were well acquainted with Aristotle and with Stoicism. But they
were also very much abreast of new developments in philosophy and
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Sarah Hutton
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 The Cambridge Platonists Sarah Hutton

revolution. They therefore form part of the philosophical revolution of the Bibliography
seventeenth century, especially since they sought an alternative Primary Sources
philosophical foundation to Aristotelianism which was waning fast in the Secondary Sources
face of challenges from scepticism and competing alternative Other Internet Resources
philosophies, notably those of Hobbes and Descartes. They were the first Related Entries
philosophers to write primarily and consistently in the English language.

One difference between the Cambridge Platonists and their more famous Benjamin Whichcote
philosophical contemporaries is that they all had a theological
background. Nevertheless, convinced of the compatibility of reason and Benjamin Whichcote is usually considered to be the founding father of
faith, they regarded philosophy as the legitimate concern of theologians Cambridge Platonism, by virtue of the fact that so many of them studied
and are distinguished by the high value they accorded human reason. at Emmanuel College when he taught there. During the Civil War period,
They devoted their considerable philosophical learning to religious and Whichcote was appointed Provost of King's College, Cambridge, and he
moral issues, to defending the existence of God and the immortality of the served as Vice Chancellor of the University in 1650. However, he was
soul, and to formulating a practical ethics for Christian conduct. They removed from his post at King's College at the Restoration in 1660. and
held the eternal existence of moral principles and of truth and that the was obliged to seek employment elsewhere, as a clergyman in London.
human mind is equipped with the principles of reason and morality. Their The interruption to his academic career may explain why he never
optimistic view of human nature is underscored by their emphasis on the published any philosophical treatises as such. The main source for his
freedom of the will. Their anti-determinism lead them to propose philosophical views are his posthumously-published sermons and
arguments for human autonomy. They were all dualists for whom mind is aphorisms. Whichcote's tolerant, optimistic and rational outlook set the
ontologically prior to matter, and for whom the truths of the mind are intellectual tone for Cambridge Platonism. Whichcote's philosophical
superior to sense-knowledge. They were nevertheless moderns in natural views are grounded in his liberal theology. He held that God being
philosophy who accepted post-Galilean science, and propounded an supremely perfect is necessarily good, wise and loving. Whichcote
atomistic theory of matter. But they repudiated mechanistic natural regarded human nature as rational and perfectible, and he believed that it
philosophy in favour of the view that spirit is the fundamental causal is through reason as much as revelation that God communicates with
principle in the operations of nature. man. ‘God is the most knowable of any thing in the world’ (Patrides,
1969, p.58). Without reason we would have no means of demonstrating
Benjamin Whichcote the existence of God, and no assurance that revelation is from God. By
Culverwell, Smith and Sterry reason Whichcote did not mean the disputatious logic of the schools but
Henry More discursive, demonstrative and practical reason enlightened by
Ralph Cudworth contemplation of the divine. He held that moral principles are immutable
Legacy absolutes exist independently of human minds and institutions, and that
virtuous conduct is grounded in reason. Whichcote's Aphorisms amount to

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 The Cambridge Platonists Sarah Hutton

virtuous conduct is grounded in reason. Whichcote's Aphorisms amount to was the only Cambridge Platonist to invoke natural law.
a manual of practical ethics which amply illustrates his conviction that the
fruit reason is not ‘bare knowledge’ but action, or knowledge which ‘doth After studying at Emmanuel College, John Smith taught mathematics at
go forth into act’. It is through reason that we gain knowledge of the Queen's College until his premature death in 1652. His Select Discourses
natural world, and recognise natural phenomena as ‘the EFFECTS OF (1659) discusses a number of metaphysical and epistemological issues
GOD’. Although Whichcote's published writings do not discuss natural relating to Chrstian belief - the existence of God, immortality of the soul
philosophy as such, his recognition of the demonstrative value of natural and the rationality of religion. Smith outlines a hierarchy of four grades of
philosophy for the argument from design anticipates the use of natural cognitive ascent from sense combined with reason, through reason in
philosophy in the apologetics of Cudworth and More. conjunction with innate notions, and, thirdly, through disembodied, self-
reflective reason; and finally divine love.
Culverwell, Smith and Sterry Peter Sterry too was educated at Emmanuel College, Cambridge. His A
Discourse of the Freedom of the Will (1675) is the most visionary of all
Whichcote's optimism about human reason and his conviction that
the writings of the Cambridge Platonists. But Sterry was more involved
philosophy properly belonged within the domain of religion, is an outlook
with events outside Cambridge than most of the others, on account of the
shared by the other Cambridge Platonists, all of whom affirmed the
fact that he was chaplain first to Lord Brooke and then to Oliver
compatibility of reason and faith. The fullest statement of this position is
Cromwell. After the death of Cromwell he retired to a Christian
Henry More's The Apology of Henry More (1664) which sets out rules for
community in East Sheen. In his Discourse Sterry argues that freedom
the application of reason in religious matters, stipulating the use of only
consists in acting in accordance with ones nature, appropriately to ones
those ‘Philosophick theorems’ which are ‘solid and rational in
level of being, be it plant, animal or intellectual entity. Human liberty is
themselves, nor really repugnant to the word of God’. Like Whichcote,
grounded in the divine essence and entails liberty of the understanding
Peter Sterry, John Smith and Nathaniel Culverwell are known only
and of the will.
through posthumously published writings. The first published treatise by
any of the Cambridge Platonists was Nathaniel Culverwell's An Elegant
and Learned Discourse of the Light of Nature of 1652. Like the other
Henry More
Cambridge Platonists Culverwell emphasises the freedom of the will and
A life-long fellow of Christ's College, Cambridge, Henry More was the
proposes an innatist epistemology, according to which the mind is
most prolific of the Cambridge Platonists. He was also the most directly
furnished with ‘clear and indelible Principles’ and reason an ‘intellectual
engaged in contemporary philosophical debate: not only did he enter into
lamp’ placed in the soul by God to enable it to understand God's will
correspondence with Descartes (between 1648 and 1649) but he also
promulgated in the law of nature. These innate principles of the mind also
wrote against Hobbes, and was one of the earliest English critics of
moral principles. The soul is a divine spark, which derives knowledge by
Spinoza (Demonstrationem duarum and Epistola altera both published in
inward contemplation, not outward observation. Drawing on Suarez and
his Opera omnia, 1671). Although he eventually became a critic of
Aquinas, as well as Platonist and contemporary philosophy, Culverwell
Cartesianism he initially advocated the teaching of Cartesianism in
was the only Cambridge Platonist to invoke natural law.
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 The Cambridge Platonists Sarah Hutton

Cartesianism he initially advocated the teaching of Cartesianism in which combines efficient and telelological causality to ensure the smooth-
English Universities. More's published writings included, besides running of the universe according to God's plan. More sought, by this
philosophy, poetry, theology and bible commentary. His main hypothesis, to account for phenomena that apparently defy the laws of
philosophical works are his An Antidote Against Atheism (1653), his Of mechanical physics (for example the inter-vortical trajectory of comets,
the Immortality of the Soul (1659), Enchiridion metaphysicum (1671), and the sympathetic vibration of strings and tidal motion). More underpinned
Enchiridion ethicum (1667). In these writings, More elaborated a his soul-body dualism by his theory of ‘vital congruity’ which explains
philosophy of spirit which explained all the phenomena of mind and of soul-body interaction as a sympathetic attraction between soul and body
the physical world as the activity of spiritual substance controlling inert engineered by the operation the Spirit of Nature.
matter. More conceived of both spirit and body as spatially extended, but
defined spiritual substance as the obverse of material extension: where Like the other Cambridge Platonists, More was a religious apologist who
body is inert and solid, but divisible; spirit is active and penetrable, but used philosophy in defence of theism against the claims of rational
indivisible. It was in his correspondence with Descartes that he first atheists. The most important statement of More's theological position his
expounded his view that all substance, whether material or immaterial, is An Explanation of the Grand Mystery of Godliness appeared in 1664, and
extended. As an example of non-material extension he proposed space, propounds, in opposition to Calvinist pessimistic voluntarism, a moral,
within which material extension is contained. He went on to argue space rational providentialism in which he vindicates the goodness and justice
is infinite, anticipating that other native of Grantham, Isaac Newton. More of God by invoking the Origenist doctrine of the pre-existence of the
also argued that God who is an infinite spirit is an extended being (res soul. The most consistent theme of his philosophical writings, are
extensa). There are, therefore, conceptual parallels between the idea of arguments for demonstrating the existence and providential nature of
God and the idea of space, a view which he elaborates in Enchiridion God. Indeed the foundation stone of More's apologetic enterprise is his
metaphysicum, where he argues that the properties of space are analogous philosophy of spirit, especially his arguments for the existence of
to the attributes of God (infinity, immateriality, immobility etc.). incorporeal causal agents, that is, souls or spirits. Furthermore, More
attempted to answer materialists like Thomas Hobbes whom he perceived
Within the category of spiritual substance More includes not just the souls as an atheist on account of his dismissal of the idea of incorporeal
of living creatures and God himself but the main intermediate causal substance as non-sensical. More's strategy was to show that the same
agent of the cosmos, the Spirit of Nature (or ‘Hylarchic Principle’). arguments that materialists use demonstrate the existence and properties
According to More the Spirit of Nature is the interface between the divine of body, also support the obverse, the existence of incorporeal substances.
and the material. As a concept, it has affinities with Plato's anima mundi In this way More sought to demonstrate that the idea of incorporeal
(world soul), and the Stoics' pneuma. The Spirit of Nature can also be substance, or spirit, was as intelligible as that of corporeal substance, i.e.
understood as encapsulating ‘certain general Modes and Lawes of Nature’ body. Like Plato (in Laws 10), More argues that the operations of the
(More, A Collection, Preface, p. xvi) since it is the Spirit of Nature that is nature cannot be explained simply in terms of the chance collision of
responsible for uniting individual souls with bodies, and for ensuring the material particles. Rather we must posit some other source of activity,
regular operation of non-animate nature. It is a ‘Superintendant Cause’ which More identifies as ‘spirit’. It is a short step, he argues, from
which combines efficient and telelological causality to ensure the smooth- grasping the concept of spirit, to accepting the idea of an infinite spirit,
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 The Cambridge Platonists Sarah Hutton

grasping the concept of spirit, to accepting the idea of an infinite spirit, More used a number of different genres for conveying his philosophical
namely God. ideas. The most popular among these were his Philosophical Poems
(1647) and his Divine Dialogues (1668). In Conjectura cabbalistica
More underpins these a priori arguments for the existence of spirit, with a
(1653), he presented core themes of his philosophy in the form of an
wide range of a posteriori arguments, taken from observed phenomena of
exposition of occulted truths contained in the first book of Genesis.
nature to demonstrate the actions of spirit. Through this excursus into
Subsequently he undertook a detailed study of the Jewish kabbalah which
observational method he accumulated a wide variety of data ranging from
were published in Knorr von Rosenroth's Kabbala denudata (1679).
experiments conducted by Robert Boyle and members of the Royal
These studies were based on the belief, then current, that kabbalistic
Society, to supernatural effects including cases of witchcraft and demons.
writings contained, in symbolic form, original truths of philosophy, as
He was censured by Boyle for misappropriating his experiments to
well as of religion. Kabbalism therefore exemplified the compatibility of
endorse his hypothesis of the Spirit of Nature, and his apparent credulity,
philosophy and faith. In addition to philosophy More published several
appears inconsistent with his otherwise rational philosophy, though it
studies of biblical prophecy (e.g. Apocalypsis apocalypseos, 1680,
must be said that belief in witchcraft was not unusual in his time, and,
Paralipomena prophetica, 1685). In 1675, More prepared a Latin
secondly, was entirely consistent with the theory of spirit according to
translation of his works, Opera omnia which ensured his philosophy
which to deny the existence of spirits good or evil, leads, logically to the
reached a European audience as well as an English one.
denial of the existence of God. As he put it, alluding to James I's defence
of episcopacy, ‘That saying is no less true in Politicks " No Bishop, no
King," than this in Metaphysicks, "No Spirit, no God" ‘ (More, 1662,
Ralph Cudworth
Antidote, p. 142). His most well-known fellow-believer was Royal
Like his friend Henry More, Cudworth spent his entire career as a teacher
Society member, Joseph Glanvill (1636-1680), whose Sadducismus
at the University of Cambridge, where, in 1647, he was appointed Regius
triumphatus, More edited.
Professor of Hebrew and Master of Clare College. In 1654 he was elected
More also published a short treatise on ethics entitled Enchiridion Master of Christ's College, a post he held until his death. Cudworth
Ethicum (1667, translated as An Account of Virtue). Indebted to Descartes' published only one major work of philosophy in his lifetime, The True
theory of the passions this argues that knowledge of virtue is attainable by Intellectual System of the Universe (1678). Among the papers he left at
reason, and the pursuit of virtue entails the control of the passions by the his death, were the treatises published posthumously as A Treatise
soul. Motivation to good is supplied by rightly-directed emotion, while Concerning Eternal and Immutable Morality (1731) and his A Treatise of
virtue is achieved by the exercise free will or autoexousy (More uses the Freewill (1848). These papers also included two further manuscript
same term as Cudworth), that is the ‘Power to act or not act within treatises on the topic of ‘Liberty and Necessity’, which have never been
ourselves’. Anticipating Shaftesbury's concept of moral sense More posits published. Cudworth's humanistic erudition and baroque style have
a special faculty of the soul combining reason and sensation which he occluded the originality of his contribution to English philosophy and
calls the ‘Boniform Faculty’. helped ensure to his undeserved neglect in the annals of English
philosophy.

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 The Cambridge Platonists Sarah Hutton

philosophy. Pythagoras to Greek and other philosophers. Cudworth subscribed to the

atomistic hypothesis that the created universe is constituted of particles of
Cudworth's True Intellectual System propounds a an anti-determinist inert matter - indeed he regarded Cartesian mechanical philosophy as a
system of philosophy grounded in his conception of God as a fully perfect recently revived variety of ancient atomism of Moses. But, for Cudworth,
being, infinitely wise and good. The created world reflects the perfection, as for Plato, soul is ontologically prior to the physical world. Since
wisdom and goodness of its creator. It must, therefore be orderly, motion, thought and action cannot be explained in terms of material
intelligible, and organised for the best. This anti-voluntarist understanding particles, haphazardly jolted together, there must be some guiding
of God's attributes is also the foundation of epistemology and ethics, since originator, namely soul or spirit. Part of the appeal to Cudworth of the
God's wisdom and goodness are the guarantors of truth and of moral new ‘mechanical’ philosophy of Descartes was that, it was the dualism
principles. By contrast, a philosophy founded on a voluntaristic which underscored it. This Cudworth therefore interpreted Descartes'
conception of the deity would have no ground of certainty or of morality dualism with some latitude to explain all movement, life and action in
because it would depend on the arbitrary will of God who could, by terms of the activity of spirits operating on inert matter. Although he was
arbitrary fiat, decree non-sense to be true and wrong to be right. It follows critical of aspects of Cartesianism, he seized on its value for religious
that misconceptions of God's attributes, which emphasise his power and apologetics as instrumental in persuading materialists of the existence of
will, result by definition in false philosopical systems with sceptical and spiritual agency.
atheistic implications.
In place of the mechanical explanation of the operations of nature, but
Much of The True Intellectual System amounts to an extended consensus proposed instead his hypothesis of ‘the Plastick Life of Nature’. Similar
gentium argument for the existence of a supreme deity. By demonstrating in conception to More's Hylarchic Principle, Cudworth's Plastic Nature is
from ancient sources that most ancient philosophers were theists, a formative principle which acts as an intermediary between the divine
Cudworth sought to argue that theism is compatible with philosophy. and the natural world, maintaining the mundane operations of the physical
Among the non-theists, Cudworth identifies four schools of atheistic universe. Plastic Nature, is the means whereby God imprints His presence
philosophy, each of which is a type of materialism - Hylozoic atheism on his creation and makes His wisdom and goodness manifest (and
which attributes life to matter, Hylopathian atheism, which attributes all therefore intelligible) throughout created nature. In one respect, as
to matter, Cosmo-plastic atheism which makes the world-soul the highest Cudworth points out, Plastic Nature is a summation of all the laws of
numen. Each of these ancient brands of atheism has its latter-day motion. At the same time he conceives it as having substance, as being
manifestations in philosophers such as Hobbes (an example of a some kind of spirit which carries out its functions unconsciously. Plastic
Hylopathian atheist) and Spinoza (a latter-day Hylozoist). Nature therefore has affinities with the Platonic anima mundi. The
hypothesis of Plastic Nature also entails a teleological principle, which
The true philosophy of Cudworth's intellectual system combines
accounts for the design and purpose in the natural world. Plastic nature
mechanistic atomism with Platonic metaphysics. Cudworth conceives this
enables Cudworth to account for the providential ordering of the universe
as having originated with Moses from whom it was transmitted via
without falling into the trap of occasionalism. For by it he explains God's
Pythagoras to Greek and other philosophers. Cudworth subscribed to the
immanence in the world, without requiring immediate divine intervention
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 The Cambridge Platonists Sarah Hutton

immanence in the world, without requiring immediate divine intervention Cudworth's theory of the mind as active is matched by an anti-determinist
in the minutiae of day-to-day operations in the natural world. ethics of action, according to which the soul freely directs itself towards
the good. In A Treatise Cudworth argues not only that ideas exist
The Platonist principle that mind precedes the world lies at the foundation independently of human minds, but also the principles of morality are
of Cudworth's epistemology which is discussed in A Treatise of Eternal eternal and immutable. In a concerted attack on Hobbesian moral
and Immutable Morality. This is the most fully developed theory of relativism, Cudworth, argues that the criteria of right and wrong, good and
knowledge by any of the Cambridge Platonists, and the most extensive evil, justice and injustice are not a matter of convention, but are founded
treatment of innatism by any seventeenth-century philosopher. For in the goodness and justice of God. Like Plato in the Euthyphro,
Cudworth, as for Plato, ideas and moral principles ‘are eternal and self- Cudworth argues that it is not God's will that determines goodness, but
subsistent things’. The knowability of the world is explained in terms of that God wills things because they are good. The exercise of virtue is not,
the basic Platonic principles of archetype and ectype (form and copy). however, a passive process, but requires the free exercise of the individual
Cognition depends on the same principles, for just as the created world is will. Cudworth sets out his theory of free will in three treatises on
a copy of the divine archetype, so also human minds contain the imprint ‘Liberty and Necessity’, only one of which has been published, and that
of Divine wisdom and knowledge. The ideas in each individual mind are posthumously - A Treatise of Freewill (1848). According to Cudworth,
therefore the same in all minds. Since the human mind mirrors the mind the will is not a faculty of the soul, distinct from reason, but a power of
of God, it is ready furnished with ideas and the ability to reason. the soul which combines the functions of both reason and will in order to
Cognition therefore entails recollection and the ideas of things with which direct the soul towards the good. Cudworth's use of the terms
the mind thinks are therefore anticipations - Cudworth adopts the Stoic ‘hegemonikon’ (taken from Stoicism) and ‘autexousion’ (taken from
term prolepsis to denote them. But cognition is not a passive process. Plotinus) underlines the fact that the exercise of will entails the power to
Rather it entails active participation of the mind. ‘Knowledge’, writes act. It is internal direction, not external compulsion that induces us to act
Cudworth, ‘is not a passion from anything without the mind, but an active either morally or immorally. Without the freedom (and therefore power)
exertion of the inward strength, vigour, and power of the mind, displaying to of act, there would be no moral responsibility. Moral conduct is active,
itself from within’ (Cudworth, 1996, p. 74). Although innate knowledge is not passive. Virtuous action is therefore a matter of active internal self-
the only true knowledge, Cudworth's epistemology does not reject sense determination, rather than determination from without.
knowledge. On the contrary, sensory input is essential for knowledge of
the body and the external world. And the external world is, intrinsically, According to the moral psychology outlined in A Treatise of Freewill, the
intelligible, since it bears the imprint of its creator in the order and ‘hegemonikon’ has an integrative function within the soul, combining, on
relationship of its component parts. However, raw sense data is not, by the one hand, the functions of will and reason, and, on the other the
itself, knowledge. But it requires mental processing in order to become lower, animal, appetites of the soul with to the higher intellectual
knowledge. As Cudworth puts it, we cannot understand the book of nature functions of the soul. In this way Cudworth bridges the divide between
unless we know how to read. soul and body that characterises Cartesianism. Furthermore, Cudworth
conceives of the hegemonikon not simply as the soul but the whole
person, ‘that which is properly we ourselves’ (Cudworth, 1996, p. 178).
12 Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy Spring 2009 Edition 13
 The Cambridge Platonists Sarah Hutton

person, ‘that which is properly we ourselves’ (Cudworth, 1996, p. 178). investigated. Richard Price, and Thomas Reid were both indebted to
Cudworth's concept of hegemonikon lays the basis for a concept of self Cudworth, whose theory of Plastic Nature was taken up in vitalist debates
identity founded in a subject that is at once thinking, autonomous and in the French enlightenment. Leibniz certainly read Cudworth and More.
end-directed. Cudworth did not (as far as is known) develop a political The intellectual legacy, the Cambridge Platonists extends not just to
philosophy. Nevertheless, the political implications of his ethical theory philosophical debate in seventeenth-century England but into European
set him against Hobbes, but also, in many ways anticipate John Locke. and Scottish Enlightenment thought and beyond.

Legacy Bibliography
After Hobbes and Locke, the Cambridge Platonists deserve to be Primary Sources
considered an important third strand in English seventeenth-century
philosophy. Their critique of Descartes, Hobbes, Spinoza has ensured that Conway, Anne. The Principles of the Most Ancient and Modern
they are never ignored in philosophical history but they have yet to Philosophy, London, 1692. Modern translation by T. Corse and A.
receive full recognition in their own right. Evidence from publication and Coudert. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996.
citation suggests that their philosophical influence was more far-reaching Cragg, G. R., (ed.). The Cambridge Platonists. New York: Oxford
than is normally recognised in modern histories of philosophy. The works University Press, 1968.
of Cudworth and More were available to a European readership through Cudworth, Ralph A Treatise Concerning Eternal and Immutable
Latin translation -More's Opera omnia appeared in 1675-9, and Morality, London, 731, Modern edition ed. S. Hutton (Cambridge:
Cudworth's entire published works were translated into Latin by Johann Cambridge University Press, 1996). Patrides, C. A. (ed.). The
Lorenz Mosheim and published in 1733. Among the immediate Cambridge Platonists. (London: Arnold, 1969).
philosophical heirs of the Cambridge Platonists, mention should be made Cudworth , Ralph. The True Intellectual System of the Universe.
of Henry More's pupil, Anne Conway (1631-1679), one of the very few (London, 1678). Facsimile reprint, Stuttgart-Bad Canstatt: Friedrich
female philosophers of the period. Her Principles of the Most Ancient and Frommann Verlag, 1964.
Modern Philosophy (1692) entails a critique of More's dualistic Culverwell, Nathaniel An Elegant and Learned Discourse of the
philosophy of spirit, proposing instead a metaphysical monism that Light of Nature, London, 1652. Modern edition by R.A. Greene and
anticipates Leibniz. Another figure linked to More was John Norris H. McCallum. (Toronto, 1971).
(1657-1711) who was to become the leading English exponent of the More, Henry. A Collection of Several Philosophical Writings,
philosophy of Malebranche. Whichcote's philosophical wisdom was London, 1662.
admired by Anthony Ashley Cooper, third Earl of Shaftesbury who More, Henry. Opera omnia. 3 vols. London 1675-1679. Facsimile
published his Select Sermons in 1698. Shaftesbury's tutor, John Locke was reprint, Hildesheim: Olms, 1966).
the intimate friend of Cudworth's philosophical daughter, Damaris Smith, John Select Discourses, ed. J. Worthington. London 1660.
Masham. The impact of Cudworth on Locke has yet to be fully Facsimile reprint, New York and London: Garland, 1978.
investigated. Richard Price, and Thomas Reid were both indebted to

14 Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy Spring 2009 Edition 15

 The Cambridge Platonists Sarah Hutton

Sterry, Peter, A Discourse of the Freedom of the Will. London, 1675. Rogers, G.A.J., J.-M. Vienne, Y.-C. Zarka (eds). The Cambridge
Taliaferro, Charles,and Alison Teply (eds), Cambridge Platonist Platonists in Philosophical Context. Politics, Metaphysics and
Spirituality. New York, Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 2004. Religion. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1997.
Whichcote, Benjamin, The Works of the Learned Benjamin Scott, Dominic Recollection and Explanation. Plato's Theory of
Whichcote, 4 vols. Aberdeen, 1751. Facsimile reprint New York, Learning and its Successors. Cambridge University Press, 1990.
1977.
Whichcote, Benjamin, Some Select Notions. London, 1685. Other Internet Resources
Whichcote, Benjamin, Select Sermons, with a Preface by Anthony
Ashley Cooper, Third Earl of Shaftesbury. London, 1698. [Please contact the author with suggestions.]

Secondary Sources Related Entries

Darwall, S. British Moralists and the Internal Ought. Cambridge: Conway, Lady Anne | More, Henry
Cambridge University Press. 1992.
Gabbey, Alan. ‘Philosophia cartesiana triumphata: Henry More and Copyright © 2009 by the author
Descartes, 1646-71’. In T.M. Lennon et al., Problems in Sarah Hutton
Cartesianism , pp. 171-249. Kingston and Montreal: Queens McGill
University Press, 1982.
Hall, Rupert. Henry More. Magic Religion and Experiment. Oxford:
Blackwell, 1990.
Hutton, Sarah (ed.). Henry More (1614-1687). Tercentenary Studies.
Dordrecht: Kluwer, 1990.
Hutton, Sarah ‘Lord Herbert and the Cambridge Platonists’. In S.
Brown (ed.). British Philosophy and the Age of Enlightenment,
Routledge History of Philosophy, vol. 5. London: Routledge, 1995.
Hutton, Sarah ‘The Cambridge Platonists’. In S. Nadler (ed.).
Blackwell Companion to Early Modern Philosophy. Oxford:
Blackwell, forthcoming.
Koyré, Alexander. From the Closed World to the Infinite Universe.
Baltimore, MA: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1957.
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