Henry More

Life and Intellectual Context

Henry More (1614–1687) was an English philosopher, theologian, and poet, and one of the most prominent members of the Cambridge Platonists, a loose circle of 17th‑century thinkers associated with the University of Cambridge. Born in Grantham, Lincolnshire, into a prosperous Calvinist family, he studied at Christ’s College, Cambridge, where he spent most of his adult life as a fellow and teacher.

More reacted strongly against the strict predestinarian Calvinism of his upbringing. He came to favor a rational and tolerant Christianity, influenced by Platonism and the humanist traditions of late Renaissance thought. At Cambridge, he interacted with figures such as Ralph Cudworth and Benjamin Whichcote, sharing with them the conviction that reason and faith are ultimately harmonious, and that moral truths have a rational, universal basis.

More’s career unfolded during a period of major intellectual upheaval: the English Civil War, the rise of mechanical philosophy (especially Descartes and his followers), and the consolidation of early modern science. He engaged vigorously with these developments, aiming to preserve the reality of God, souls, and moral values while taking seriously the new science. He carried on important correspondences with René Descartes, whose dualism he admired but also criticized, and later with the German polymath Anne Conway, whose own metaphysics he helped to shape.

He published works in Latin and English, including An Antidote against Atheism (1653), The Immortality of the Soul (1659), and Enchiridion Metaphysicum (1671). More never married and remained at Cambridge until his death in 1687, declining high ecclesiastical promotion in favor of an academic and contemplative life.

Metaphysics, Spirit, and Space

More’s philosophy is centered on a spiritualist metaphysics that seeks to reconcile elements of Platonism with aspects of early modern mechanics. Against materialist and strictly mechanical accounts of the world, he insisted on the pervasive reality and activity of spirit.

A key doctrine is his notion of extended spirit. Contrary to Descartes, who defined matter by extension and mind by thought without extension, More argued that spirit is also extended, though in a different and more subtle way than body. For More, spirit is characterized by self‑activity, penetrability, and indivisibility, in contrast to matter, which is passive, impenetrable, and divisible. By making spirit extended, he aimed to explain how an immaterial God and created spirits could interact with physical bodies and operate within space without lapsing into pure materialism.

Closely related is his famous conception of infinite space as the “divine presence”. More held that space is not merely an abstract ordering of positions or a property of bodies, but something real, infinite, and necessary. He sometimes describes space as the “sensorium of God” or as an attribute of the divine omnipresence. This view anticipated aspects of Isaac Newton’s later discussion of absolute space, and historians have noted possible lines of influence between More’s writings and Newton’s theological and metaphysical reflections.

More also advanced a rich hierarchy of beings, drawing on Platonic and Neo‑Platonic sources. God stands at the apex, followed by various orders of immaterial spirits (including angels and demons), human souls, and finally the material world. These levels are connected by laws and patterns that reflect the rational order of the divine mind. In this way, his metaphysics sought to secure both the intelligibility of nature (a key concern of the new science) and the reality of a spiritual cosmos.

Religion, Ethics, and Influence

Religiously, More aimed to defend Christian theism against both atheism and what he saw as dangerous forms of enthusiasm or fanaticism. In works such as An Antidote against Atheism and A Modest Enquiry into the Mystery of Iniquity (1664), he argued that reason supports belief in God, the immortality of the soul, and moral responsibility. At the same time, he criticized overly literal or authoritarian approaches to scripture and stressed that genuine religion must be reasonable, moral, and spiritually transformative.

Ethically, More and the Cambridge Platonists defended a form of moral rationalism. They maintained that moral distinctions—good and evil, right and wrong—are not arbitrary products of divine will or human convention, but have an objective and discernible rational basis. Conscience, aided by reason and divine grace, can perceive these moral truths. This position opposed both relativistic and voluntarist tendencies in early modern theology and ethics.

More’s interest in prophecy, mysticism, and the occult also shaped his reputation. He wrote on spirits, miracles, and apparitions, treating them as empirical evidence for a spiritual realm. Proponents saw this as an innovative attempt to use experiential and quasi‑scientific reports to support a theistic worldview. Critics, both in his time and later, have viewed these interests as credulous or as undermining his claims to rationality.

His influence has been traced in several directions. In England, he helped articulate a moderate, rationalist Anglican theology and influenced figures in both philosophy and theology. His correspondence with Anne Conway contributed to a distinctive metaphysical system that later impacted Leibniz and some strands of idealism. Some scholars argue that his views on space and spirit helped shape discussions in the Newtonian context, especially about absolute space and divine omnipresence.

Modern assessments of More are mixed. Historians of philosophy note his importance as a mediating figure between scholasticism, Platonism, and the new science, and as a key voice in debates about spirit, space, and mechanism. Others regard his metaphysics as speculative and his appeals to spiritual phenomena as problematic. Nonetheless, he remains a central figure for understanding Cambridge Platonism, the religious and metaphysical dimensions of the Scientific Revolution, and the early modern struggle to secure a place for spirit and morality in a mechanized world.