Cudworth, Ralph

Abstract

Abstract Ralph Cudworth (1617–88) was a leading member of the Cambridge Platonists, and an early and important influence on the British rationalist moral philosophers of the eighteenth century. In 1645 he became master of Clare Hall in Cambridge and was elected Regius Professor of Hebrew, and in 1654 became master of Christ's College, where he continued until his death in 1688. He was recognized as a leader among the Cambridge Platonists, a group of thinkers including, in addition to Cudworth, Henry More, Benjamin Whichcote, Nathaniel Culverwel, Peter Sterry, John Worthington, and John Smith.