Описание
Introduction
this aspect of her character that attracted the Cambridge Platonist Henry More
(1614-87), who became her teacher and friend. More had been the tutor of
Anne's favorite stepbrother, John Finch, while he was a student at Christ's
College, Cambridge, and it was probably through this relationship that he
became acquainted with Anne. In 1650 the two began to correspond about the
philosophy of Descartes. Anne would quite naturally have turned to More for
guidance on this subject because More was one of Descartes' earliest and most
enthusiastic proponents in England at the time. This did not mean, however,
that More accepted Descartes' philosophy uncritically.2
As a committed Christian, More was acutely sensitive to the dangers for religion inherent in Cartesian
dualism and in Descartes' conviction that all physical interactions could be
explained in purely mechanical terms as a result of matter in motion. If, as
Descartes maintained, mind and body were utterly distinct and only body was
extended, then where was mind or soul, and what possible function did it serve?
More feared that Descartes had inadvertently left the door open for the twin
threats of atheism and materialism. He did not hesitate to voice his concerns in
his letters to Descartes. Their correspondence ended shortly before he took on
Anne Finch as his "heroine pupil," a term he used with obvious affection and
respect.3
He was therefore in an excellent position to instruct her in the
intricacies of Cartesian philosophy.
More clearly was an exceptional as well as a rigorous teacher. For example, he
did not start Anne's reading of Descartes with the Meditations or Discourse,
which are so popular nowadays, but with the more difficult Principia philosophiae.4
The clarity and logic of Lady Con way's thinking - which is apparent in her
treatise - is therefore in large part due to More's training, although, as he was
the first to admit, she was endowed with a "singular Quickness and Apprehensiveness of Understanding."5
More's close relationship with Lady Conway continued after her marriage to
Edward Conway (1623-83) on 11 February 1651. In 1652 More dedicated his
Antidote against Atheism to her, describing her as "Vertue become visible to his
outward Sight,"6
words that indicate his devotion and admiration. In their early
letters More is very much the tutor and Lady Conway the pupil; but over time
the character of their relationship changed. The subject of their correspondence
branched out into other areas, and as the years went by they became intellectual
Alan Gabbey, "Philosophia Cartesiana triumphata: Henry More (1646-1671)" in T. M. Lennon,
J. M. Nicholas, and J. W. Davis (eds.), Problems of Cartesianism (Kingston, McGill-Queen's
University Press, 1982), pp. 171-250; Gabbey, "Henry More and the Limits of Mechanism" in
Sarah Hutton (ed.), Henry More (1614-1687): Tercentenary Studies (Dordrecht, Kluwer, 1990),
PP- 19-35-
Marjorie H. Nicolson (ed.),* The Conway Letters, rev. edn, with an introduction and new material
by Sarah Hutton (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1992), p. 46.
We are grateful to Sarah Hutton for pointing this out.
5 See More's preface below, p. 3.
Antidote against Atheism (London, 1653).
Детали
- Год издания
- 1996
- Format