Book contents
- Atheists and Atheism before the Enlightenment
- Atheists and Atheism before the Enlightenment
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Chapter 1 Introduction
- Chapter 2 The Problem of ‘Atheism’ in Early Modern England
- Chapter 3 Atheism among the Godly
- Chapter 4 ‘This degenerate Age … so miserably over-run with Scepticism and Infidelity’
- Chapter 5 ‘Aikenhead the Atheist’
- Chapter 6 An Atheist Text by Archibald Pitcairne
- Chapter 7 The Text of Pitcairneana
- Chapter 8 The Trial of Tinkler Ducket
- Chapter 9 Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
Chapter 7 - The Text of Pitcairneana
Houghton Library, Harvard, MS Eng 1114*
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 July 2023
- Atheists and Atheism before the Enlightenment
- Atheists and Atheism before the Enlightenment
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Chapter 1 Introduction
- Chapter 2 The Problem of ‘Atheism’ in Early Modern England
- Chapter 3 Atheism among the Godly
- Chapter 4 ‘This degenerate Age … so miserably over-run with Scepticism and Infidelity’
- Chapter 5 ‘Aikenhead the Atheist’
- Chapter 6 An Atheist Text by Archibald Pitcairne
- Chapter 7 The Text of Pitcairneana
- Chapter 8 The Trial of Tinkler Ducket
- Chapter 9 Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Chapter 7 publishes the text of Pitcairneana, MS Eng 1114 in the Houghton Library, Harvard. In it, a spokesman for atheism, ‘Incredulous’, argues against ‘Credulous’, a spokesman for Christian orthodoxy, and makes various points, notably concerning the relationship between spiritual and non-spiritual bodies and the issue of motion being intrinsic to matter; he also argues in favour of the world’s being eternal rather than the result of a divine act of creation and offers a cyclical rather than progressive view of human development. The authors referred to in the dialogue include Samuel Clarke, Henry More, John Toland and Robert Hooke, while the treatise ends by invoking ‘axioms’ in an essentially Newtonian mode.
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- Atheists and Atheism before the EnlightenmentThe English and Scottish Experience, pp. 144 - 157Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2023