The Idea of Nature in Viscount Bolingbroke’s Philosophy and Landscapes

Abstract

This thesis considers the philosophy and landscapes of Henry St John, Viscount Bolingbroke (1678-1751). Although a significant political figure, his voluminous writing on philosophy has been dismissed as incoherent, a form of Deism, or reduced to socio-political issues. On the contrary, his philosophy is found to be a largely systematic whole. It is related to his two designed landscapes, one of which is an early example of a ferme ornée. A broadly hermeneutic approach is taken to Bolingbroke’s notoriously contradictory thought, which revisions it as a dialectic demonstrating the influence of intellectual traditions and their unconscious expression. The investigation puts more emphasis on concepts and the guiding force of philosophical reasoning than is usual in garden history.
The key finding is that Bolingbroke’s philosophy is a systematic attempt to unify the areas of natural philosophy, theology and morality with an argument for a way to moral truth based on an idea of nature. Despite claiming to follow Locke’s epistemological method, Bolingbroke, in effect, asserts a direct realism. The highly ambiguous contemporary concept of nature is revealed to have a pivotal meaning as the idea of form or essence, and this reflects a largely assumed Aristotelianism in which teleology and normativity are central. This has its major application in the context of morality where ‘human nature’ provides the promised middle way between the absolutism of Plato and the relativism of Protagoras; a duality also applied to Locke and Hobbes. The role of a deity, which has otherwise been the subject of some dismissal in Bolingbroke’s thought, is clarified.
The idea of human nature is found to be central to Bolingbroke’s thought, and this guides the approach to his landscapes, which are viewed as embodiments of a concern with questions of the nature of a person and how to live.

Date of Award	18 Jun 2024
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Bristol
Supervisor	Robert Mayhew (Supervisor) & Timothy Mowl (Supervisor)