Richard Burthogge

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Richard Burthogge (* 1637/1638; † 1705 ) was an English doctor , justice of the peace and philosopher .

Life

Richard Burthogge, son of an infantry captain of the Plymouth Garrison , was baptized on January 30, 1637 (Julian calendar, 1638 according to the Gregorian calendar) in St Maurice's church in Plympton . His exact date of birth is not known. He first attended Exeter Grammar School and was admitted to All Souls College , Oxford in 1654 . He later moved to Lincoln College (Oxford) , where he made his BA in 1658 . In October 1661 he enrolled at the University of Leiden . The title of his dissertation , which he submitted in February 1662 to obtain a doctorate in medicine, was De lithiasi et calculo .

Back in England, Burthogge settled in Devon. He spent the rest of his life in or near Totnes , Devon, where he worked as a doctor. Known to be tolerant of Catholics and probably a nonconformist himself, he was appointed justice of the peace under James II , a position that he also held under Wilhelm III. (Orange) retained.

Burthogge was married at least three times. His first wife Sarah was the daughter of Andrew Trevill, to whom he dedicated his writing The Divine Goodness in 1670 and his Organum Vetus et Novum in 1678 . In the following years, already during his marriage to Mary Deeble, Burthogge published several other writings on theological questions and two other philosophical works, which he dedicated to John Locke : An Essay upon Reason, and the Nature of Spirits (1694) and Of the Soul of the World; and of Particular Souls (1699). Mary likely died in 1695. Burthogge's daughters Sarah, Mary, and Ann likely descended from these first two marriages. Ann, who died before her father, left an underage son, Richard Babbage, ancestor of Charles Babbage . When he died, Burthogge was married to Honor and apparently lived in Bowden near Totnes. He was buried on July 24, 1705 in the Church of St. Mary in Totnes.

philosophy

Burthogge's work can be assigned to the anti-dogmatic advocates of the concept of tolerance, including Henry More and John Locke. He is perhaps the first idealist of modern philosophy. In his Organum he discusses what it means to be gifted with reason. According to Burthogge, the immediate objects of the mind are “entia cogitationis” or appearances that are formed jointly by the senses and reason. Perception and judgment are inextricably linked. The nature of our intellectual faculties means that we are caught in our terms ("notions"). Meaning and the terms by which the mind perceives its objects are just as little outside of itself as colors are not outside of the eye. The senses and the mind grasp (and preserve) certain spiritual forms in the same way as a mirror depicts pictures or a glass the vibrations of a lute string. Whoever tries to recognize things in their real essence can only get entangled in contradictions. The everyday distinction between reality and imagination is actually only a distinction between concepts, since we cannot compare our concepts with reality. Logically, Burthogge represents one of the purest coherence theories of truth. Truth consists in the logical consistency of our ideas with one another, so it is always logical truth (metaphysical truth is inaccessible to us).

Influenced by the Cambridge Platonists , Burthogge advocates a panpsychistic theory. Spirit and matter are different and cannot condition one another. Yet there is a connection between them. The most convincing explanation would therefore be that matter is activated and directed by a world spirit. The souls of humans and animals are parts of the world soul. Their assignment to individual parts of matter (i.e. individual humans and animals) results from the harmonious coexistence that Burthogge describes in his theory of perception with the glass-string metaphor.

Works

  • Divine Goodness explicated and vindicated from the Exceptions of the Atheist (1670) (titled “Tagathon, or Divine Goodness…” in editions of 1671 and 1672)
  • Causa Dei, or an Apology for God (1675)
  • Organum vetus et novum, or Discourse on Reason and Truth (1678)
  • An Argument for Infants' Baptism (1683)
  • Vindiciae Paedo-Baptismi (1685)
  • Prudential Reasons for repealing the Penal Laws against all Recusants (1687)
  • The Nature of Church-Government (1691)
  • Essay upon Reason and the Nature of Spirits (1694)
  • Of the Soul of the World; and of Particular Souls (1699)
  • Christianity a Revealed Mystery (1702)

swell

  1. ^ A b Concise Dictionary of National Biography
  2. ^ Anthony à Wood, Athenae Oxonienses, Vol. IV, p. 581
  3. ^ Dictionary of National Biography
  4. ↑ Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy

literature

  • Margaret Winifred Landes (Ed.): The Philosophical Writings of Richard Burthogge. 1921
  • Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy
  • G. Nuchelmans: Judgment and proposition: from Descartes to Kant. 1983
personal data
SURNAME Burthogge, Richard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English doctor, justice of the peace and philosopher
DATE OF BIRTH 1637 or 1638
DATE OF DEATH 1705