Cambridge Platonism Workshop 3 “Reception & Influence” 31 May – 1 June 2013

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Clare College, Douglas Hedley, Revisioning Cambridge Platonism, Sarah Hutton

REVISIONING CAMBRIDGE PLATONISM

WORKSHOP 3: RECEPTION AND INFLUENCE

Clare College, Cambridge

DAY ONE: Friday 31 May 1.00pm – 6.00pm

Chair: Sarah Hutton, Aberystwyth University

1.00 Buffet Lunch

2.00-2.50         Michael Gill (University of Arizona)

Paper: Whichcote and Cudworth on Religious Tolerance and the Readmission of the Jews

2.50-3.25         Nick Fisher

Presentation : The influence of John Smith’s ‘noble intellect and generous Christian faith’ upon Simon Patrick (1626-1707)

3.25 Tea/Coffee

3.45-4.35         Luisa Simonutti (Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR), ISPF –CNR)

Paper: Consciousness and identity : Locke and Cudworth

4.35-5.10         Isabel Rivers (Queen Mary, University of London)

Presentation: The promotion of the Cambridge Platonists by some clerics and ministers from the later seventeenth to the early nineteenth centuries: Gilbert Burnet, Henry Scougal, William Wishart, John Wesley, Richard Price, Alexander Knox, John Jebb

5.10-6.00         visit to Queens’ College (John Smith’s library)

6.00-7.00         downtime

7.00-7.30         drinks reception, Clare College

7.30                 workshop dinner, Small Hall, Clare College

DAY TWO

Saturday 1 June 9.00am – 6.00 pm

Chair: Douglas Hedley, Clare College

9.00-9.50         Thomas Fedrick-Illsley (Christ Church, University of Oxford)

Paper: Samuel Clarke and the Cambridge Platonists

9.50-10.40       Friedrich Uehlein (Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg)

Paper: Whichcote, Shaftesbury and Deism

10.40 Tea/Coffee

11.00-11.35     Louise Hickman (Newman University)

Presentation: Deiform reason: The Cambridge Platonists and Eighteenth Century Dissenting Thought

11.35-12.10     Sylvana Tomaselli (St John’s College, Cambridge)

Presentation: Reflections on Love in the political writings of Wollstonecraft

12.10-1.00       Derek Michaud (Boston University)

Paper: John Smith’s Lasting Influence: The Transatlantic Reception of a ‘Living Library’

1.00     Buffet Lunch

2.00-2.50         James Vigus (Queen Mary, University of London)

Paper: “This is not quite fair, Master More!”: Coleridge’s Encounters with the Cambridge Platonists

2.50-3.40         Philippe Barthelet (Paris)

Paper: Entre théodicée et apologétique, Platon comme « préface humaine de l’Évangile » : Joseph de Maistre et Simone Weil dans le sillage ouvert par Cudworth

3.40     Tea/Coffee

4.00-4.35         Russell Manning (University of Aberdeen)

Presentation: The Irrelevance and Relevance of Cambridge Platonism for Twentieth-Century Theology

4.35-5.00         General Discussion (introduced by John Rogers, Keele University (emeritus))

5.00-6.00         visit to Christ’s and Emmanuel College

6.00-7.00         downtime, and meeting of advisory board (6.15-6.45)

7.00-7.30         drinks reception, Clare College

7.30                 dinner, Small Hall, Clare College

For further information, please contact David Leech (Project Coordinator): dl240@cam.ac.uk

 

________________________________________

REVISIONING CAMBRIDGE PLATONISM

The work of the Cambridge Platonists has been gravely neglected due to a
combination of scholarly misapprehensions, a lack of accessible textbooks,
and good critical editions of their major works. The central aim of this
interdisciplinary project is to begin addressing this neglect by bringing
together the major established UK and overseas researchers as well as early
career academics who work on, or have a close interest in, Cambridge
Platonism. This will advance research on this pivotal intellectual
movement. These discussions will take place at a series of workshops at
Clare College, Cambridge. Contributors will be drawn from the disciplines
of Philosophy, Theology/Religious Studies, and English Literature. Topics
covered by the project will include, but not be limited to, the formation
and sources of Cambridge Platonism, their key philosophical and religious
ideas, and their reception in the areas of (i) aesthetics; (ii) ethics;
(iii) metaphysics (iv) early-modern women’s writing; (v) secularisation and
the origins of atheism.

The project is spearheaded by Douglas Hedley (PI) and Sarah Hutton (Co-PI),
and it is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council.

John Henry, “Henry More” (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)

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Henry More, John Henry

Henry, John, “Henry More”, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2012 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = <http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2012/entries/henry-more/>.

 Substantive revision in Fall 2012. 

 

LEIBNIZ: NOTES ON HENRY MORE’S THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL

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Henry More, Leibniz

LEIBNIZ: NOTES ON HENRY MORE’S THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL

English translation from the original French of notes on a manuscript of the translation of Mr H. More’s The Immortality Of The Soul, made by Mr Briot, and dedicated to Monseigneur the Duke of Hanover found in Sämtliche schriften und briefe series VI volume 4, Deutsche Akademie der Wissenschaften (ed) pp 1678-1680. Parts of this text can also be found in: Textes inédits tome 2 Gaston Grua (ed) pp 509-511.

http://www.leibniz-translations.com/more2.htm

PDF available at http://www.leibniz-translations.com/pdf/more2.pdf

Cambridge Platonism Workshop “Key Philosophical and Religious Ideas”: April 19-20 (University of Cambridge)

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Clare College, Douglas Hedley, Revisioning Cambridge Platonism, Sarah Hutton

Cambridge Platonism Workshop: April 19-20 (University of Cambridge)

Workshop Announcement:

Cambridge Platonism: Key Philosophical and Religious Ideas.

To be held at Clare College, University of Cambridge on April 19-20th. The
program will run as follows:

DAY ONE: Friday 19 April 1.00pm – 6.00pm

2.00 Justin Smith “Does Hylozoism Lead to the Theory of Monads?”

2.45 Stephen Gersh and Douglas Hedley “Cambridge Platonism and
Neoplatonisms: from Florence to Cambridge?”

3.15 Emily Thomas “Space, Time and Cambridge Platonism”

4.05 Visit to Queens’ College (John Smith’s library)

5.05 James Bryson “Oxford Platonism and the Problem of Atheism in 17th
century English Platonism”

5.35 Open Session: “Cambridge Platonism and 17th Century Philosophy” (led
by Sarah Hutton)

DAY TWO: Saturday 20 April 9.30am – 6.00 pm

9.30 Tom Stoneham “Arthur Collier: An Anomaly”

10.00 Charles Taliaferro “The View from Cambridge Platonism; How Philosophy
of Mind and Other Sub-Fields of Philosophy Look From a Cambridge Platonist
Perspective”

11.05 Mogens Laerke “Ardor and Contempt: Some Remarks on Leibniz and More”

11.35 Lesley-Anne Dyer “Using the City of God as a Latin Source: A
Preliminary Comparison of the Christian Platonism of Peter Abelard and
Ralph Cudworth”

12.05 Martine Pécharman “Cuworth on Self-consciousness”

2.00 Stephen Clark “Mistaken Contrasts in Patrides and Elsewhere”

2.45 Jasper Reid “The Cambridge Platonists and the Consent of Nations”

3.35 Dan Garber “More on Ghosts, Witches, and the Experimental Philosophy.”

4.45 Visit to Christ’s and Emmanuel College

Although the workshop is free to attend, we have no provision for attendee
travel costs, accommodation or meals. This workshop is part of a larger
project, ‘Revisioning Cambridge Platonism’; more information can be found
about this project at the bottom of this email.

For queries, please contact Emily Thomas on aeet2@… or David
Leech
on dl240@…

________________________________________

REVISIONING CAMBRIDGE PLATONISM

The work of the Cambridge Platonists has been gravely neglected due to a
combination of scholarly misapprehensions, a lack of accessible textbooks,
and good critical editions of their major works. The central aim of this
interdisciplinary project is to begin addressing this neglect by bringing
together the major established UK and overseas researchers as well as early
career academics who work on, or have a close interest in, Cambridge
Platonism. This will advance research on this pivotal intellectual
movement. These discussions will take place at a series of workshops at
Clare College, Cambridge. Contributors will be drawn from the disciplines
of Philosophy, Theology/Religious Studies, and English Literature. Topics
covered by the project will include, but not be limited to, the formation
and sources of Cambridge Platonism, their key philosophical and religious
ideas, and their reception in the areas of (i) aesthetics; (ii) ethics;
(iii) metaphysics (iv) early-modern women’s writing; (v) secularisation and
the origins of atheism.

The project is spearheaded by Douglas Hedley (PI) and Sarah Hutton (Co-PI),
and it is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council.

LEIBNIZ: NOTES ON HENRY MORE’S ENCHIRIDION ETHICUM

Tags

Henry More, Leibniz

LEIBNIZ: NOTES ON HENRY MORE’S ENCHIRIDION ETHICUM

English translation from the Latin in Textes inédits tome 2 Gaston Grua (ed) pp 570-571.

http://www.leibniz-translations.com/more1.htm

PDF available at http://www.leibniz-translations.com/pdf/more.pdf

Revisioning Cambridge Platonism

Tags

Clare College, Douglas Hedley, Revisioning Cambridge Platonism, Sarah Hutton

REVISIONING CAMBRIDGE PLATONISM

The work of the Cambridge Platonists has been gravely neglected due to a combination of scholarly misapprehensions, a lack of accessible textbooks, and good critical editions of their major works. The central aim of this interdisciplinary project is to begin addressing this neglect by bringing together the major established UK and overseas researchers as well as early career academics who work on, or have a close interest in, Cambridge Platonism. This will advance research on this pivotal intellectual movement. These discussions will take place at a series of workshops at Clare College, Cambridge. Contributors will be drawn from the disciplines of Philosophy, Theology/Religious Studies, and English Literature. Topics covered by the project will include, but not be limited to, the formation and sources of Cambridge Platonism, their key philosophical and religious ideas, and their reception in the areas of (i) aesthetics; (ii) ethics; (iii) metaphysics (iv) early-modern women’s writing; (v) secularisation and the origins of atheism.

The project is spearheaded by Douglas Hedley (PI) and Sarah Hutton (Co-PI), and it is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council.

2012 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The new Boeing 787 Dreamliner can carry about 250 passengers. This blog was viewed about 1,300 times in 2012. If it were a Dreamliner, it would take about 5 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

Thomas Traherne Studies and Their Future Directions/Future Directions for Traherne Studies

Friday, December 14 – Saturday, December 15

Selwyn College , Cambridge University

Thomas Traherne (c.1637-1674) was a polymath with a distinctive theological vision. He wrote extensively, but remains a relatively obscure figure in seventeenth-century studies.  Traditionally misunderstood as a figure somewhat out of his time, he is frequently considered within the contexts of medieval mysticism or post-Enlightenment Romanticism, when in fact he was strongly engaged with the thought of his age.  Traherne read, noted and wrote upon a great variety of subjects – philosophical, theological, literary and scientific – perhaps remarkably considering his geographical circumstances and the relative privacy of his life.  His works are grounded in many influences and reveal a great openness as to what writings, ancient and modern, could offer inspiration and guidance.  This is a writer that believed, rather emphatically, that it would be possible both to discover and to communicate to others the intrinsic nature of “ALL THINGS”.

The aim of this symposium is to address the interdisciplinarity of Traherne’s work, with the hope of encouraging future interdisciplinary collaboration in Traherne studies.  We are particularly interested in bringing together the endeavours of literary criticism – which cover an early and persistent association between Traherne and the metaphysical poets, the historicising of Traherne and a more recent interest in the manuscript evidence – with the fields of theology and philosophy, in which Traherne has been considered as a Christian mystic, an Anglican founding-father, a spiritual brother to the Cambridge Platonists, or a unique theological thinker with relevance to broader discussions on the practice of theology.

This will be the first academic symposium on Traherne since the discovery of the new manuscripts in 1996/7.  The works of the Lambeth Palace MS (Inducements to Retiredness, A Sober View of Dr Twisse, Seeds of Eternity and The Kingdom of God) and the unfinished biblical epic, The Ceremonial Law, have opened up previously unknown aspects of Traherne’s thought and shone new light on the more well-known poems, Centuries, Thanksgivings and Select Meditations.  We especially welcome papers that focus on the content of the Lambeth MS and The Ceremonial Law, and work that considers ways of responding to the overall question of the symposium: what is the way forward for Traherne studies?

Contacts: Cassie Gorman (ceg47@cam.ac.uk) and Beth Dodd (esd26@cam.ac.uk).

SOURCE: http://philevents.org/event/show/2998

“Peter Sterry, fast sermons and Quakerism” at Mercurius Politicus (Blog)

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Peter Sterry

 

Selection:

The five sermons by Sterry that the book includes are:

• The Spirits Conviction of Sinne. Opened in a Sermon before the Honorable House of Commons [26 November 1645].
• The Teachings of Christ In The Soule. Opened in a Sermon before the Right Honble House of Peers, in Covent-garden-Church [March 29, 1648].
• The Clouds in which Christ Comes. Opened in a Sermon before the Honourable House of Commons [27 October 1647].
• The Comings Forth of Christ In the Power of his Death. Opened in a Sermon Preached before the High Court of Parliament [1 November 1649]
• England’s Deliverance From the Northern Presbytery, compared with its Deliverance from the Roman Papacy: or A Thanksgiving Sermon Preached [5 November 1651].

This is not every sermon Sterry published, but it is nearly all of them. And they are all significant sermons: placed together, they tell something of the story of the puritan victories of the 1640s and the growth in religious radicalism that the same decade saw.

The first three are fast sermons. These had become established as a Parliamentary tradition by the 1620s and were significant in the 1640s as a venue where preachers favoured by Presbyterian and Independent grandees could be used to fly religious and political kites to an audience of MPs or peers. They stopped in 1649, at least as regular sermons, but extraordinary fast sermons carried on after that date.

The 1645 sermon is the first one Sterry ever preached to Parliament. He was chaplain to Lord Brooke, who along with other disaffected peers like the Earl of Warwick and Lord Saye and Sele had played a significant role in leading Parliamentary opposition to Charles I during the early 1640s. Brooke was shot by a sniper while laying siege to Lichfield Castle in 1643. After that, Sterry became part of the Westminster Assembly of religious divines. The sermon is fairly conventionally puritan, in that it focuses on the role of the holy spirit in redeeming the chosen. But it’s sold by Henry Overton and Benjamin Allen, booksellers with more radical sympathies. Both were partners based in Cripplegate.

The Clouds in which Christ Comes is the first sign of Sterry moving in a more radical direction. It dabbles in the mysticism of Jakob Boehme, who was a German theologian who had various personal experiences of God. It was delivered at a critical time for the Parliamentary side: a coup by the Presbyterians had been seen off but the Independents were now having to deal with Leveller influences in the army. The Putney debates started the day after this sermon was delivered. As a result, the text is rather apocalyptic. The Teachings of Christ In The Soule was preached at a time when Parliament’s relationship with the Scots had broken down, and both were preparing for war. It also shows signs of being influenced by Boehme. Both texts were sold by Robert Dawlman, a specialist in theological literature with a shop in St Paul’s Yard.

The Comings Forth of Christ In the Power of his Death marked Cromwell’s victories at Drogheda and Wexford. By this stage Sterry was preacher to the Council of State, the executive body set up after the death of Charles I which included Cromwell and various of the Independent and New Model Army grandees as its members. It was much more overtly millenarian than Sterry’s previous sermons. England’s Deliverance From the Northern Presbytery marks the defeat of the Scots at Worcester, and argues that this is a greater deliverance for England than having rid itself of Catholics.

The fact that all of these texts were collected in one place indicates someone with a significant interest in Sterry and the radical, millenarian end of puritanism. . . .

For the full blog entry see here.

Lewis, “Thomas Wadsworth (1630-76): The Making of a Platonic Dissenter,” 2011

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dissent, Marilyn A. Lewis, Thomas Wadsworth

Marilyn A. Lewis, ’Thomas Wadsworth (1630-76):  The Making of a Platonic Dissenter’ in The Congregational History Society Magazine, vol. 6, no. 4 (Autumn 2011), pp. 171-191.