Q528802
Sign in to saveAlso known as Alazonomastix Philalethes, Philophilus Parresiastes
English philosopher (1614–1687)
Key facts
- Born
- ( 1614-10-12 ) 12 October 1614, Grantham , Lincolnshire , England
- Died
- 1 September 1687 (1687-09-01) (aged 72), Cambridge , England
- Occupations
- Philosopher priest theologian poet
- Alma mater
- Christ's College, Cambridge
- Era
- 17th-century philosophy
- Region
- Western philosophy
- School
- Cambridge Platonists
- Institutions
- Christ's College, Cambridge
- Language
- English, Latin
- Main interests
- Metaphysics Theology ethics natural philosophy
- Notable ideas
- Essential spissitude, extended immaterial substance, early use of the concept of a fourth dimension , Spirit of Nature
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Image
- Portret van Henry More, RP-P-OB-46.333.jpg
Show 4 more facts
- date of birth
- 1614-10-12
- date of death
- 1687-09-01
- name in native language
- Henry More
- Commons category
- Henry More
Sources (3)
via Wikidata · CC0
~16 min read
Article
Henry More FRS (/mɔːr/; 12 October 1614 – 1 September 1687) was an English philosopher, Anglican priest, theologian, and poet, associated with the Cambridge Platonists. He sought to reconcile Platonism with Christian theology and responded critically to Cartesian philosophy. His metaphysical writings addressed the nature of spirit, matter, divine providence, and the soul, and he was a prominent voice in seventeenth-century religious and philosophical debates.
More rejected Cartesian dualism, arguing that spirit, like matter, must be extended in space. He coined the term fourth dimension and introduced the concept of essential spissitude to describe the spatial extension of immaterial substance. He also proposed the existence of a Spirit of Nature—an unconscious, incorporeal agent through which God sustained the order of the physical world. His metaphysics grounded his opposition to materialist atheism and emphasised the necessity of immaterial principles in explaining life and motion.