Cambridge Platonists - Major Works of The Cambridge Platonists

Major Works of The Cambridge Platonists

• Conway's only surviving treatise, The Principles of the Most Ancient and Modern Philosophy (1692) presents an ontology of spirit in opposition to More, Descartes, Hobbes and Spinoza and utilizes a concept of a monad derived from Kabbala and which anticipates Leibniz who may have plagiarized the idea from her.
• Cudworth's chief philosophical work was The True Intellectual System of the Universe (1678) and the Treatise concerning Eternal and Immutable Morality, which appeared posthumously in 1731.
• Culverwel's chief work was Light of Nature (1652). Culverwel died young (probably at the age of 32). He had intended to write a multi-part work reconciling the Gospel with philosophical reason.
• Henry More (1614–1687) wrote many works. As a Platonist, his important works were Manual of Ethics (1666), the Divine Dialogues (1668), and the Manual of Metaphysics (1671). While all of More's works enjoyed popularity, the Divine Dialogues were perhaps most influential.
• John Smith, a student of Benjamin Whichcote, is best remembered today for the elegance of his style and the depth of his learning in the posthumously published Select Discourses (1660).
• Peter Sterry is remembered for his A Discourse of the Freedom of the Will (1675) among other works.
• Benjamin Whichcote (1609–1683) was one of the leaders of the movement, but he was also an active pastor and academic who did not publish in his lifetime. His sermons were notable and caused controversies, and Whichcote wrote a great deal without publishing. In 1685, Some Select Notions of B. Whichcote was published due to demand. After that was Select Sermons (1689) (with a preface by Shaftesbury) and Several Discourses (1701). Finally, a collection of his sayings appeared as Moral and Religious Aphorisms in 1703.