The Cambridge Platonists and Averroes, 2013
By: Sarah Hutton
Title The Cambridge Platonists and Averroes
Type Book Section
Language English
Date 2013
Published in Renaissance Averroism and Its Aftermath: Arabic Philosophy in Early Modern Europe
Pages 197–212
Categories Plato, Averroism, Tradition and Reception
Author(s) Sarah Hutton
Publisher(s)
Translator(s)
The ‘Averroism’ which figures in my chapter is a radically attenuated version of the philosophy of Ibn Rushd – Averroism as represented by a single doctrine imputed to the Commentator, namely the idea of a single soul, common to all human beings. The subject of my chapter has less, therefore to do with the thought of Averroes in its later reception or manifestation, and more to do with an idea of Averroism which was current in seventeenth-century England. This is particularly true of the Cambridge Platonists for whom the Averroist doctrine of the intellectus agens is the key doctrine which they associate with Averroes and which they understood as a doctrine of a ‘single soul’ or ‘common soul’. The only one of their number to offer anything like an extensive critique of Averroes was Henry More (1614–1687). Although he too was primarily concerned with the Averroistic conception of the intellectus agens, his response is distinctive for his concern with the Italian Averroists of recent times, Girolamo Cardano, Pietro Pomponazzi and Giulio Cesare Vanini. Even though the Cambridge Platonists’ views on the intellectus agens tell us more about themselves than about Averroes, their limited focus is nevertheless revealing of currents of diffusion of Averroistic ideas, and of the presence of Averroes even in the new waters of early modern philosophy. As I shall argue later, there is an important sense in which More’s partial and distorted conception of the philosophy of Ibn Rushd contributed to a new conception of the self centred on consciousness. My chapter will offer a brief survey of identifiable references to Averroes in the work the Cambridge Platonists, starting with three Emmanuel College men, John Smith (1618–1652), Nathaniel Culverwell (1619–1651) and Ralph Cudworth (1617–1688). I shall then discuss Henry More, to whom the major part of this chapter will be devoted. But before discussing the Cambridge school, a few words on the background.

{"_index":"bib","_type":"_doc","_id":"1749","_score":null,"_source":{"id":1749,"authors_free":[{"id":2016,"entry_id":1749,"agent_type":"person","is_normalised":1,"person_id":1485,"institution_id":null,"role":{"id":1,"role_name":"author"},"free_name":"Sarah Hutton","free_first_name":"Sarah","free_last_name":"Hutton","norm_person":{"id":1485,"first_name":"Sarah","last_name":"Hutton","full_name":"Sarah Hutton","short_ident":"","is_classical_name":0,"dnb_url":"http:\/\/d-nb.info\/gnd\/1145635474","viaf_url":"http:\/\/viaf.org\/viaf\/76355229","db_url":"","from_claudius":1,"link":"bib?authors[]=Sarah Hutton"}}],"entry_title":"The Cambridge Platonists and Averroes","title_transcript":"","title_translation":"","main_title":{"title":"The Cambridge Platonists and Averroes"},"abstract":"The \u2018Averroism\u2019 which figures in my chapter is a radically attenuated version of the philosophy of Ibn Rushd \u2013 Averroism as represented by a single doctrine imputed to the Commentator, namely the idea of a single soul, common to all human beings. The subject of my chapter has less, therefore to do with the thought of Averroes in its later reception or manifestation, and more to do with an idea of Averroism which was current in seventeenth-century England. This is particularly true of the Cambridge Platonists for whom the Averroist doctrine of the intellectus agens is the key doctrine which they associate with Averroes and which they understood as a doctrine of a \u2018single soul\u2019 or \u2018common soul\u2019. The only one of their number to offer anything like an extensive critique of Averroes was Henry More (1614\u20131687). Although he too was primarily concerned with the Averroistic conception of the intellectus agens, his response is distinctive for his concern with the Italian Averroists of recent times, Girolamo Cardano, Pietro Pomponazzi and Giulio Cesare Vanini. Even though the Cambridge Platonists\u2019 views on the intellectus agens tell us more about themselves than about Averroes, their limited focus is nevertheless revealing of currents of diffusion of Averroistic ideas, and of the presence of Averroes even in the new waters of early modern philosophy. As I shall argue later, there is an important sense in which More\u2019s partial and distorted conception of the philosophy of Ibn Rushd contributed to a new conception of the self centred on consciousness. My chapter will offer a brief survey of identifiable references to Averroes in the work the Cambridge Platonists, starting with three Emmanuel College men, John Smith (1618\u20131652), Nathaniel Culverwell (1619\u20131651) and Ralph Cudworth (1617\u20131688). I shall then discuss Henry More, to whom the major part of this chapter will be devoted. But before discussing the Cambridge school, a few words on the background.","btype":2,"date":"2013","language":"English","online_url":"","doi_url":"10.1007\/978-94-007-5240-5_10","ti_url":"","categories":[{"id":20,"category_name":"Plato","link":"bib?categories[]=Plato"},{"id":1,"category_name":"Averroism","link":"bib?categories[]=Averroism"},{"id":43,"category_name":"Tradition and Reception","link":"bib?categories[]=Tradition and Reception"}],"authors":[{"id":1485,"full_name":"Sarah Hutton","role":1}],"works":[],"republication_of":null,"translation_of":null,"new_edition_of":null,"book":null,"booksection":{"id":1749,"section_of":241,"pages":"197\u2013212","is_catalog":null,"book":{"id":241,"bilderberg_idno":null,"dare_idno":null,"catalog_idno":null,"entry_type":"reference","type":4,"language":null,"title":"Renaissance Averroism and Its Aftermath: Arabic Philosophy in Early Modern Europe","title_transcript":null,"title_translation":null,"short_title":null,"has_no_author":0,"volume":null,"date":"2013","edition_no":null,"free_date":"2013","abstract":null,"republication_of":null,"online_url":null,"online_resources":null,"translation_of":null,"new_edition_of":null,"is_catalog":0,"in_bibliography":0,"is_inactive":0,"notes":null,"ti_url":null,"doi_url":null,"book":{"id":241,"pubplace":"London","publisher":"Springer","series":"International Archives of the History of Ideas","volume":"211","edition_no":null,"valid_from":null,"valid_until":null}}},"article":null},"sort":[2013]}

The Cambridge Platonists and Averroes, 2013
By: Sarah Hutton
Title The Cambridge Platonists and Averroes
Type Book Section
Language English
Date 2013
Published in Renaissance Averroism and Its Aftermath: Arabic Philosophy in Early Modern Europe
Pages 197–212
Categories Plato, Averroism, Tradition and Reception
Author(s) Sarah Hutton
Publisher(s)
Translator(s)
The ‘Averroism’ which figures in my chapter is a radically attenuated version of the philosophy of Ibn Rushd – Averroism as represented by a single doctrine imputed to the Commentator, namely the idea of a single soul, common to all human beings. The subject of my chapter has less, therefore to do with the thought of Averroes in its later reception or manifestation, and more to do with an idea of Averroism which was current in seventeenth-century England. This is particularly true of the Cambridge Platonists for whom the Averroist doctrine of the intellectus agens is the key doctrine which they associate with Averroes and which they understood as a doctrine of a ‘single soul’ or ‘common soul’. The only one of their number to offer anything like an extensive critique of Averroes was Henry More (1614–1687). Although he too was primarily concerned with the Averroistic conception of the intellectus agens, his response is distinctive for his concern with the Italian Averroists of recent times, Girolamo Cardano, Pietro Pomponazzi and Giulio Cesare Vanini. Even though the Cambridge Platonists’ views on the intellectus agens tell us more about themselves than about Averroes, their limited focus is nevertheless revealing of currents of diffusion of Averroistic ideas, and of the presence of Averroes even in the new waters of early modern philosophy. As I shall argue later, there is an important sense in which More’s partial and distorted conception of the philosophy of Ibn Rushd contributed to a new conception of the self centred on consciousness. My chapter will offer a brief survey of identifiable references to Averroes in the work the Cambridge Platonists, starting with three Emmanuel College men, John Smith (1618–1652), Nathaniel Culverwell (1619–1651) and Ralph Cudworth (1617–1688). I shall then discuss Henry More, to whom the major part of this chapter will be devoted. But before discussing the Cambridge school, a few words on the background.

{"_index":"bib","_type":"_doc","_id":"1749","_score":null,"_source":{"id":1749,"authors_free":[{"id":2016,"entry_id":1749,"agent_type":"person","is_normalised":1,"person_id":1485,"institution_id":null,"role":{"id":1,"role_name":"author"},"free_name":"Sarah Hutton","free_first_name":"Sarah","free_last_name":"Hutton","norm_person":{"id":1485,"first_name":"Sarah","last_name":"Hutton","full_name":"Sarah Hutton","short_ident":"","is_classical_name":0,"dnb_url":"http:\/\/d-nb.info\/gnd\/1145635474","viaf_url":"http:\/\/viaf.org\/viaf\/76355229","db_url":"","from_claudius":1,"link":"bib?authors[]=Sarah Hutton"}}],"entry_title":"The Cambridge Platonists and Averroes","title_transcript":"","title_translation":"","main_title":{"title":"The Cambridge Platonists and Averroes"},"abstract":"The \u2018Averroism\u2019 which figures in my chapter is a radically attenuated version of the philosophy of Ibn Rushd \u2013 Averroism as represented by a single doctrine imputed to the Commentator, namely the idea of a single soul, common to all human beings. The subject of my chapter has less, therefore to do with the thought of Averroes in its later reception or manifestation, and more to do with an idea of Averroism which was current in seventeenth-century England. This is particularly true of the Cambridge Platonists for whom the Averroist doctrine of the intellectus agens is the key doctrine which they associate with Averroes and which they understood as a doctrine of a \u2018single soul\u2019 or \u2018common soul\u2019. The only one of their number to offer anything like an extensive critique of Averroes was Henry More (1614\u20131687). Although he too was primarily concerned with the Averroistic conception of the intellectus agens, his response is distinctive for his concern with the Italian Averroists of recent times, Girolamo Cardano, Pietro Pomponazzi and Giulio Cesare Vanini. Even though the Cambridge Platonists\u2019 views on the intellectus agens tell us more about themselves than about Averroes, their limited focus is nevertheless revealing of currents of diffusion of Averroistic ideas, and of the presence of Averroes even in the new waters of early modern philosophy. As I shall argue later, there is an important sense in which More\u2019s partial and distorted conception of the philosophy of Ibn Rushd contributed to a new conception of the self centred on consciousness. My chapter will offer a brief survey of identifiable references to Averroes in the work the Cambridge Platonists, starting with three Emmanuel College men, John Smith (1618\u20131652), Nathaniel Culverwell (1619\u20131651) and Ralph Cudworth (1617\u20131688). I shall then discuss Henry More, to whom the major part of this chapter will be devoted. But before discussing the Cambridge school, a few words on the background.","btype":2,"date":"2013","language":"English","online_url":"","doi_url":"10.1007\/978-94-007-5240-5_10","ti_url":"","categories":[{"id":20,"category_name":"Plato","link":"bib?categories[]=Plato"},{"id":1,"category_name":"Averroism","link":"bib?categories[]=Averroism"},{"id":43,"category_name":"Tradition and Reception","link":"bib?categories[]=Tradition and Reception"}],"authors":[{"id":1485,"full_name":"Sarah Hutton","role":1}],"works":[],"republication_of":null,"translation_of":null,"new_edition_of":null,"book":null,"booksection":{"id":1749,"section_of":241,"pages":"197\u2013212","is_catalog":null,"book":{"id":241,"bilderberg_idno":null,"dare_idno":null,"catalog_idno":null,"entry_type":"reference","type":4,"language":null,"title":"Renaissance Averroism and Its Aftermath: Arabic Philosophy in Early Modern Europe","title_transcript":null,"title_translation":null,"short_title":null,"has_no_author":0,"volume":null,"date":"2013","edition_no":null,"free_date":"2013","abstract":null,"republication_of":null,"online_url":null,"online_resources":null,"translation_of":null,"new_edition_of":null,"is_catalog":0,"in_bibliography":0,"is_inactive":0,"notes":null,"ti_url":null,"doi_url":null,"book":{"id":241,"pubplace":"London","publisher":"Springer","series":"International Archives of the History of Ideas","volume":"211","edition_no":null,"valid_from":null,"valid_until":null}}},"article":null},"sort":["The Cambridge Platonists and Averroes"]}

  • PAGE 1 OF 1