Abstract

This dissertation examines the thought of Ralph Cudworth , Anglican theologian and preeminent philosopher among the Cambridge Platonists. Among philosophers there has emerged a revisionist interpretation of Cudworth's role in the history of moral philosophy suggesting that he was not, as has been largely supposed, the first English representative of ethical rationalism . This study seeks not to refute the revisionist interpretation, but to go beyond it by setting Cudworth's philosophy in historical contexts besides that of early modern moral philosophy, including English politics and Reformation history. Cudworth's True Intellectual System of the Universe and his theological writings are examined. Relationships between these works and Cudworth's moral philosophy are defined. ;This study concludes that Cudworth's moral philosophy was an important component of his Christian apologetic. Cudworth believed that true philosophy confirmed a "true intellectual system of the universe" and that this providential system was compatible with the central truths of the Christian religion. This study shows how Cudworth employed historical, philosophical, theological, and philological scholarship to explicate and defend both Protestant Christianity and the philosophical examination of the moral and natural universe. ;Chapters One through Three relate events of Cudworth's early career, discuss the formative influences on his scholarship, and examine his early theological treatises and sermons. Chapter Four describes his epistemological theory. Chapters Five and Six depict Cudworth's use of natural theology and the history of philosophy as apologetic tools for the defense of theism and Trinitarianism. Chapter Seven takes up Cudworth's moral and political thought, and shows how his theological and philosophical concerns come together in his defense of private conscience against Hobbes' attempt to minimize its role in the sphere of political life. Chapter Eight concludes the dissertation with a brief reception history of Cudworth's True Intellectual System, a reflection on the Christian foundations of moral and political freedom, and a brief assessment of Cudworth's success as an apologist