Henry More’s Epistola H. Mori ad V.C. and the Cartesian Context of Newton’s Early Cambridge Years (2023)
Hutton, Sarah (Author)
Roos, Anna Marie Eleanor (Editor)
Manning, Gideon (Editor)
Springer International Publishing
Pages: 231-250
Publication date: 2023
Language: English
I argue that Henry More contributed to a climate of receptivity towards Descartes in Cambridge at the time when Newton first encountered Cartesianinism as a student there. I emphasise More’s interest in Cartesian natural philosophy rather than in Cartesian metaphysics by highlighting his neglected, ‘Epistola H. Mori ad V.C.’, which was in fact his most re-published work. I show that this defends Cartesian a natural philosophy as an improvement on existing theories, despite what More saw as its shortcomings. Furthermore, this is a position which More continued to maintain despite his reservations about Cartesian mechanism. While we cannot be certain what impact More’s views may have had on Newton, this more positive assessment of More’s engagement with Cartesian natural philosophy requires us reconsider the prevailing view that More rejected Cartesianism in his later years.
...MoreBook Anna Marie Roos; Gideon Manning (2023) Collected Wisdom of the Early Modern Scholar: Essays in Honor of Mordechai Feingold.
Similar Citations
Article
Christophe Schmit;
(2015)
Les dynamiques de Jean-Jacques Dortous de Mairan
Chapter
Jesseph, Douglas;
(2005)
Mechanism, Skepticism, and Witchcraft: More and Glanvill on the Failures of the Cartesian Philosophy
Article
De Smet, Rudolf;
Verelst, Karin;
(2001)
Newton's Scholium Generale: The Platonic and Stoic Legacy - Philo, Justus Lipsius and the Cambridge Platonists
Book
Henry, John;
(2012)
Religion, Magic, and the Origins of Science in Early Modern England
Chapter
Smith, Justin E. H.;
(2009)
Descartes and Henry More on Living Bodies
Book
Ott, Walter R.;
(2009)
Causation and Laws of Nature in Early Modern Philosophy
Article
Andrea Strazzoni;
(2018)
The Medical Cartesianism of Henricus Regius: Disciplinary Partitions, Mechanical Reductionism and Methodological Aspects
Book
Broughton, Janet;
Carriero, John Peter;
(2008)
A Companion to Descartes
Book
Nolan, Lawrence;
(2011)
Primary and Secondary Qualities: The Historical and Ongoing Debate
Article
Manchak, John Byron;
(2009)
On Force in Cartesian Physics
Thesis
Abou-Nemeh, Samar Catherine;
(2012)
Nicolas Hartsoeker's Systeme of Nature: Physics by Conjecture and Optics by Design in Early Modern Europe
Book
Robertson, Neil G.;
McOuat, Gordon;
Vinci, Thomas C.;
(2007)
Descartes and the Modern
Chapter
Koen Vermeir;
(2013)
Mechanical Philosophy in an Enchanted World: Cartesian Empiricism in Balthasar Bekker’s Radical Reformation
Book
Francesco G. Sacco;
(2020)
Real, Mechanical, Experimental: Robert Hooke's Natural Philosophy
Article
Mihnea Dobre;
(2018)
Henry More and William Petty: Revisiting an Early Modern Polemic
Book
Jamie C. Kassler;
(2019)
Newton’s Sensorium: Anatomy of a Concept
Article
Jip van Besouw;
Steffen Ducheyne;
(2021)
Characterisations in Britain of Isaac Newton’s Approach to Physical Inquiry in the Principia between 1687 and 1713
Book
Lukas M. Verburgt;
(2021)
John Venn: Unpublished Writings and Selected Correspondence
Article
Schliesser, Eric;
(2011)
Newton's Challenge to Philosophy: A Programmatic Essay
Chapter
Guicciardini, Niccolo;
(2007)
“Mechanica Rationalis” and “Philosophia Naturalis” in the Auctoris Praefatio to Newton's Principia
Be the first to comment!