Cumberland, Richard (1632-1718)

A brief disquisition of the law of nature, according to the principles and method laid down in the Reverend Dr. Cumberland's ... Latin treatise on that subject. As also his confutations of Mr. Hobbs's principles, put into another method. The second edition corrected, and somewhat enlarged. By James Tyrrell

London

Printed for W. Rogers, R. Knaplock, A. Bell, and T. Cockeril

1701

"For I will here suppose the Soul, or Mind of Man, to be at first, rasa Tabula, like fair paper, that hath no connate Character or Idea's imprinted upon it (as that Learned Theorist Mr. Lock hath, I suppose, fully proved) and that it is not sensible of any thing at its coming into the World, but its own Existence and Action"

Nor let it seem strange, that I suppose the Nature of divers Things, about which we are daily conversant, ought first to be looked into, and considered: For I will here suppose the Soul, or Mind of Man, to be at first, rasa Tabula, like fair paper, that hath no connate Character or Idea's imprinted upon it (as that Learned Theorist Mr. Lock hath, I suppose, fully proved) and that it is not sensible of any thing at its coming into the World, but its own Existence and Action; but receives all its Ideas afterwards, from such Objects as it hath received in by the Senses: So that our Understandings being naturally destitute of all Notions of Idea's, we cannot comprehend how they can operate, unless they be first excited by outward Objects. And indeed how can we understand what may be helpful and agreeable, or else hurtful and destructive to Men's Minds and Bodies, unless we first consider (as far as we are able) all the Causes both near and remote, which have made, constituted, and do still preserve Mankind, or else may tend to its [end page 4] destruction either for the time present, or to come? Nor indeed can it be understood what is the fittest and best Thing, or Action, any Person can perform in a Case proposed, unless first all those Effects, which may proceed from it, in all its various Circumstances, be duly considered and compared together. [...]
(4, p. 4-5

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Cumberland, Richard. A brief disquisition of the law of nature, according to the principles and method laid down in the Reverend Dr. Cumberland's ... Latin treatise on that subject. As also his confutations of Mr. Hobbs's principles, put into another method. The second edition corrected, and somewhat enlarged. By James Tyrrell, ... London, 1701. Based on information from English Short Title Catalogue. Eighteenth Century Collections Online. Gale Group.

Blank Slate; Lockean philosophy

10/08/2006