John Norris
- For other men of the same name, see John Norris (disambiguation).
John Norris (1657 - 1711), Anglican priest , philosopher and poet, is remembered as an exponent of Cambridge Platonism, a seventeenth-century revival of Plato's ideas, and as the sole English follower of the French Cartesian philosopher Nicolas Malebranche (1638–1715). Norris was a Platonist and mystic who wrote on numerous topics, including politics, religion, philosophy and the Christian life. He was an early critic of John Locke, whose An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690) he attacked in Christian Blessedness or Discourses upon the Beatitudes in the same year. He refuted Locke’s emphasis on the importance of sense experience in arriving at knowledge, but agreed with Locke’s dismissal of the doctrine of innate ideas (which asserts that humans hold their mental ideas at birth). Norris' An Account of Reason and Faith in Relation to the Mysteries of Christianity (1697) was one of the best contemporary responses to Christianity Not Mysterious, by the English deist John Toland.
Norris wrote a full exposition of Malebranche’s system, An Essay towards the Theory of the Ideal or Intelligible World (1701–4), in which he attempted to prove the existence of the intelligible world (the mind of God), and offered a full account of its nature. Norris adopted Descartes' view of the structure of thought, and a Malebranchean view of the contents of thought. Among his most popular works were A Collection of Miscellanies (1687) and An Account of Reason and Faith (1697).
Life
John Norris was born at Collingbourne, Kingston, Wiltshire, in 1657, the second of four siblings. His father was a minister, and Norris’ early training was a Puritan one. In 1671, he began a course of study at Winchester School, where he received a classical education; the curriculum included Greek and Latin literature, and excelled at his studies. He matriculated at Exeter College, at Oxford, spending the years from 1676 until 1680 studying the Scholastic and ancient authors. He gained a Bachelor of Arts 1680, and was elected a Fellow of All Souls College, a distinction he enjoyed for nine years and would always recall fondly. In 1684 he earned his Masters Degree. Sometimes before 1688 he also discovered the works of Malebranche, who would become one of his philosophical heroes. He took holy orders, and lived a quiet and placid life as a country parson and thinker.
During his stay at All Souls, Norris published several of his most popular works. He published the first edition of A Collection of Miscellanies in 1687, which would culminate in a ninth edition printed in 1730. At this time he also published “The Root of Liberty,” a sermon in which he defended human freedom by an appeal to the Augustinian concept of attention. These works exhibit an independence from the heavy influence of Malebranchean doctrine on Norris' subsequent works. The first text in which Norris clearly adopted Malebranchean arguments, The Theory and Regulation of Love, published in 1688, was a piece characterizing love as the summons of God. To this text, Norris appended his correspondence with Henry More, the Cambridge Platonist. Finally, in 1689, he published Reason and Religion, which would be reissued seven times until 1724.
In 1689, he resigned his Fellowship, married, and began two years as rector at Newton St. Loe in Somersetshire. There, he published one of his most popular texts, Christian Blessedness, in 1690. One year later, Locke appealed to the Earl of Pembroke on Norris' behalf, and Norris was appointed rector at Bemerton near Salisbury, Wiltshire. From 1692 until his death in 1711, he held George Herbert's benefice of Bemerton. Norris preferred study and meditation, and found his duties as rector an impediment to his scholarly activities. He maintained correspondences with various people, including Elizabeth Thomas (“Corinna”), Damaris Cudworth (Lady Masham), Mary Astell and Locke, among others. In 1695, Norris published his correspondence with Astell, calling it, Letters concerning the Love of God, between the Author of the Proposal to the Ladies and Mr. John Norris. He also published pamphlets and treatises on a variety of topics including the Toleration Act, Christian morality, the immortality of the soul, and the difference between the enthusiasm of the Quakers and the "Ideal Philosophy" he endorsed. Norris clarified these differences in an addendum to Reflections upon the Conduct of Human Life in 1691. Richard Vickris, the Quaker, replied irately to this addendum, generating a heated reply from Norris, in which he further emphasized the differences between the “divine light” of his own philosophy and that of the Quaker doctrines. This work, published in 1692, was entitled Two Treatises concerning the Divine Light.
Locke and Norris shared the common objective of wishing to disqualify the Quakers' claim to direct enlightenment from God, but were otherwise philosophical opponents. In 1690, Norris’ criticism of Locke's An Essay concerning Human Understanding¸ (1689), entitled Cursory Reflections upon a Book called An Essay concerning Human Understanding, prompted Locke to modify the second edition of the Essay at 2.10.2. Otherwise, Locke did not reply publicly to Norris' criticisms. Near the end of 1692, Norris and Locke quarreled over a letter addressed to Locke which Lady Masham had entrusted to Norris, and which Locke claimed had been opened by him. In spite of Norris’ protests, from that time forward they were not on friendly terms (Cranston 1957, 364-365). Soon afterwards (1693), Locke wrote Remarks upon some of Mr. Norris' Books, Wherein he asserts P. Malebranche's Opinion of seeing all Things in God and Examination of Malebranche.
In Cursory Reflections, Norris had promised that he would soon publish a treatise in which he would present his own philosophy at length. It was not until 1701 that Norris completed the first volume of his magnum opus, An Essay Towards the Theory of the Ideal or Intelligible World. The second volume was issued in 1704. In the first voume Norris examined the divine nature and in the second he detailed the nature of creation, specifically the nature of humanity and animals. These theoretical works did not enjoy the popular success of his other writings, such as An Account of Reason and Faith, in Relation to the Mysteries of Christianity, which was so well-read that it went into a fourteenth edition as late as 1790. His last two theoretical works concerned the nature of the soul: A Philosophical Discourse concerning the Natural Immortality of the Soul, published in 1708, and A Letter to Mr. Dodwell concerning the Immortality of the Soul of Man, issued in 1709. His final publication within his own lifetime, A Treatise concerning Christian Prudence, was printed just a year before his death. He died in February of 1711, aged fifty-six years, at Bemerton, and was interred there.
Thought and Works
John Norris is remembered as an exponent of Cambridge Platonism, a seventeenth-century revival of Plato's ideas, and as the sole English follower of the French Cartesian philosopher Nicolas Malebranche (1638–1715). In exposition of that philosopher's system, he wrote An Essay towards the Theory of the Ideal or Intelligible World (1701–4). Philosophically Norris was a Platonist and mystic. Among his twenty-three works were An Idea of Happiness (1683), Miscellanies (1687), Theory and Regulation of Love (1688), An Essay toward the Theory of the Ideal or Intelligible World (1701-4), and a Discourse concerning the Immortality of the Soul (1708). His most popular work is A Collection of Miscellanies, consisting of Poems, Essays, Discourses and Letters (1687). His poetry, with occasional fine thoughts, is full of far-fetched metaphors and conceits, and is often dull and prosaic.
John Norris was an early critic of John Locke, whose An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690) he attacked in Christian Blessedness or Discourses upon the Beatitudes in the same year; he also combated Locke's theories in his Essay toward the Theory of the Ideal or Intelligible World. He refuted Locke’s emphasis on the importance of sense experience in arriving at knowledge, but agreed with Locke’s dismissal of the doctrine of innate ideas (which asserts that humans hold their mental ideas at birth).
Norris' An Account of Reason and Faith in Relation to the Mysteries of Christianity (1697) was one of the best contemporary responses to Christianity Not Mysterious, by the English deist John Toland.
Thought
Norris integrated the thought of his predecessors, Descartes, Malebranche, Suarez, Augustine, Aquinas and Plato, centering on the Christian God as truth, love and the aim of all religious and practical life. Norris believed that knowledge should be pursued only for the sake of understanding and advancing Christianity, and regarded his own work, as well as his predecessors', as attempting to realize fully knowledge of the Pauline Doctrine, stated at Acts 17:28, that in God “we live, move and have our being.” His advice was never to study out of vanity, and he considered time spent acquiring knowledge of worldly subjects, such as history or languages, as time wasted.
One important goal of Norris’ philosophical writing was the completion of Malebranche's project. Norris believed that Malebranche had not proved the existence of the intelligible world ( the mind of God), or offered a full account of its nature. His response was An Essay Towards the Theory of the Ideal or Intelligible World (1701–04), a complete exposition of the ideas of Malebranche, which treated the intelligible world in two parts: first, in itself, and second, in relation to human understanding. Norris adopted Descartes' view of the structure of thought, and a Malebranchean view of the contents of thought. He elaborated a version of Descartes' real distinction proof, which rendered transparent the assumption of abstractive knowledge, in order to weaken Locke's hypothesis of thinking matter. An important concern for Norris was proving the existence and immortality of the soul. He was troubled by the heterodox theological views of the Enthusiasts (Quakers) and Socinians, and constructed numerous arguments against their doctrines by utilizing the “divine light,” characterized within what he called his “Ideal Philosophy.”
ReferencesISBN links support NWE through referral fees
- Acworth, Richard. The philosophy of John Norris of Bemerton: (1657-1712). Hildesheim: Olms, 1979. ISBN 3487068842 ISBN 9783487068848
- Norris, John. Practical discourses upon the Beatitudes of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Vol. I. London: Printed for S. Manship, 1699.
- Norris, John. A collection of miscellanies: consisting of poems, essays, discourses & letters, occasionally written. London, Printed for J. Crosley and Samuel Manship at the Black Bull in Cornhil, 1692.
- Norris, John; Astell, Mary. Letters Concerning the Love of God, Between the Author of the Proposal to the Ladies and Mr. John Norris: Wherein his late Discourse, shewing, That it ought to be intire and exclusive of all other Loves, is further Cleared and Justified. London : Printed for Edmund Parker, at the Bible and Crown over against the New Church in Lombard-Street, 1730.
- Norris, John; White, Peter D. E. Where's my memorial: the religious, philosophical and metaphysical poerty of John Norris of Bemerton. [S.l.]: P.D.E. White, 1991. ISBN 1870556364 ISBN 9781870556361
- O'Meara, Dominic J. Neoplatonism and Christian thought. Studies in Neoplatonism, v. 3. Norfolk, Va.: International Society for Neoplatonic Studies; Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York Press, 1981. ISBN 0873954920 ISBN 9780873954921 ISBN 0873954939 ISBN 9780873954938
Template:A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature
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