The Alliance between Puritanism and Cartesian Logic at Harvard, 1687-1735

Abstract

William Brattle (1662-1717), a much-loved tutor at Harvard and later minister to the college, formally introduced Cartesian logic into the Harvard curriculum in 1687; and the Cartesian compendium that he wrote, along with a later Cartesian catechism, were the basis of a Harvard student's logic education for at least fifty years. These two logic textbooks were passed around in manuscript and transcribed into student notebooks until 1735, when the catechism was published with extensive footnotes by an anonymous editor.2 From 1687 through 1730s and 1740s there existed an alliance between Puritanism and Cartesian logic at Harvard. That this alliance existed runs counter to historical interpretation up to now. Nineteenth-century historians of Puritanism began to interpret the introduction of Cartesian logic as an ominous event which introduced self-reliant intellectuality into a society based on the authority of the Bible. Later Perry Miller expanded upon this interpretation and wrote that Cartesian logic in the curriculum indicated a crumbling of Puritan intellectual assurance. For him and the many who have followed his work, Cartesianism only foreshadowed the fall of Puritanism.3 This interpreta-