The Enigma of Ralph Cudworth in the History of Philosophy

Abstract

The present paper studies the place of Ralph Cudworth in the history of philosophy. The objective is to show that this author is not part of the canon of seventeenth-century philosophy and yet he is a representative of the modern period in the first histories of philosophy. For this purpose I will first introduce Cudworth and then exhibit the presentation of this author in the works of Jacob Brucker, Wilhelm Tennemann, Taddä Rixner and Joseph Marie Degérando, finishing this itinerary with Georg Hegel’s Lectures on the History of Philosophy. Then I will show some reflections about Cudworth that proceed from the actualized bibliography on this author. The conclusions indicate the importance of studying this kind of thinkers, who are not part of the canon of philosophy but are part of the conformation of this same canon.