The Metaphysics of Henry More: 207 (International Archives of the History of Ideas Archives internationales d'histoire des idées, 207) - Hardcover

Reid, Jasper

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 9400739877 ISBN 13: 9789400739871

Publisher: Springer, 2012

Synopsis

The book surveys the key metaphysical contributions of the Cambridge Platonist, Henry More (1614–1687). It deals with such interwoven topics as: the natures of body and spirit, and the question of whether or not there is a sharp ontological division between them; the nature of spatial extension in relation to each; the composition and governance of the physical world, including More’s theories of Hyle, atoms, vacuum, and the Spirit of Nature; and the life of the human soul, including its pre-existence. It approaches these topics and the systematic connections between them both historically and analytically, and seeks to do justice to the ways in which More’s system developed and changed―sometimes quite dramatically―over the course of his long career. It also explores More's intellectual relations with both his own inspirations (Plotinus, Origen, Ficino, Descartes, etc.) and with those who responded, whether positively or negatively, to his work (Leibniz, Locke, Boyle, Newton, etc.).

About this title

About the Author

Jasper Reid studied philosophy at Cambridge and Princeton, and is now a lecturer in philosophy at King's College London. His main area of research is in the history of philosophy of the early modern period, particularly on the metaphysical and epistemological side. He has written on a number of figures from that period, including Henry More, Descartes, Malebranche, Berkeley and Jonathan Edwards; and on a number of themes, including space, immaterialism, and early modern philosophy of mathematics.

From the Back Cover

From his correspondence with Descartes in the 1640s to his discussions with Isaac Newton in the 1680s, Henry More (1614–1687) was a central figure in seventeenth-century philosophy. Notwithstanding his occasional portrayal as a rather eccentric anachronism, excessively wedded to the Neoplatonism of the past, the fact is that he was involved in some of the most cutting-edge debates of the day, and engaged with most of the giants of that great age of geniuses. The present work takes More seriously as a subtle and systematic early-modern metaphysician. It explores his ideas in relation to those of his contemporaries, both friends and foes, while also taking care not to neglect his Neoplatonic heritage; but it also reveals just how original a thinker he was in his own right. Topics include More’s evolving conception of Hyle (or first matter); his account of the physical world, a world of atoms without void; his theory of immaterial extension, and the divine real space that underlay thisworld; his attitude to mechanical explanations in physics, and his preferred theory of the Spirit of Nature; his developing attitude to the notion of living matter; and his views on the life of the human soul, before as well as after its union with the human body.

Edition details

• Publisher: Springer
• Publication date: 2012
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 9400739877
• ISBN 13: 9789400739871
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 420