Ralph Cudworth 1617 – 1688
Ralph Cudworth was an English philosopher, theologian, and the leading figure of the Cambridge Platonist school. As Regius Professor of Hebrew at Cambridge, he produced The True Intellectual System of the Universe, a vast defense of theism, the immateriality of the soul, and the eternal and immutable nature of right and wrong against what he took to be the materialism and ethical relativism of Hobbes and his followers. His posthumous Treatise concerning Eternal and Immutable Morality articulates an ethical realism that has been an important reference point in modern moral philosophy.
Key facts
- Nationality
- English
- Era
- Modern
- Movements
- Platonism, Early Modern
Selected quotes
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Attributed to Ralph Cudworth:
“Things are good or evil by their nature, and not by mere will.”
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Attributed to Ralph Cudworth:
“Without God, the moral order is unintelligible.”
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Attributed to Ralph Cudworth:
“Mind is older than matter.”
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Attributed to Ralph Cudworth:
“Right and wrong are not the products of will, but the eternal and immutable nature of things.”
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Attributed to Ralph Cudworth:
“The wise see God in everything; the foolish see nothing of him at all.”