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Full Description
Henry More (1614-1687), the Cambridge Platonist, is often presented as an elusive and contradictory figure. An early apologist for the new natural philosophy and its rational support for Christian doctrine, More also defended the existence of witchcraft and wrote extensively on the nature of the soul and the world of spirits. A vigorous and prolific controversialist against many varieties of contemporary `atheism' and `enthusiasm', More was himself a spiritual perfectionist and illuminist, believing that the goal of the religious life was a conscious union with God.
Until now, most biographies of More have ignored these, his own, preoccupations, and have made of him a rather eccentric but important illustrative figure in one of several larger narratives dominated by canonical figures like Descartes, Boyle, Spinoza or Newton. This is the first modern biography to place his own religious and philosophical preoccupations centre-stage, and to provide a coherent interpretation of his work from a consideration of his own writings, their contexts and aims. It is also the first study of More to exploit the full range of his prolific writings and a number of unknown manuscripts relating to his life. In addition, it contains an annotated handlist of his extant correspondence.
Contents
1: Early Life and Education.- 2: Psychozoia and the Life of the Soul.- 3: Metaphysics, Psychology and Natural Philosophy in the Psychodia Platonica.- 4: Enthusiasm and the Light Within.- 5: Plato Democritans: the Ancient Cabbala Revived.- 6: The Cupri-Cosmits and the Latitude-Men.- 7: The Apology of Dr Henry More.- 8: The Preexistence of the Soul.- 9: A Natural History of the World of Spirits.- 10: The Limits of Mechanism and the Experimental Philosophy of the Royal Society.- 11: Hylozoism and the Nature of Material Substance.- 12: The Kabbalah and the Quakers: F.M. van Helmont, Anne Conway, van Helmont, and Knorr von Rosenroth.- Conclusion.- 1. Primary Sources.- 2. Secondary Sources.- Appendix: The Correspondence of Henry More.
