Robert Greene (philosopher)

Robert Greene (1678?–1730), was an English philosopher.

Greene, the son of Robert Greene, a mercer of Tamworth, Staffordshire, by his wife Mary Pretty of Fazeley, was born about 1678. His father, who according to the son was a repository of all the Christian virtues, died while Greene was a boy, and it was through the generosity of his uncle, John Pretty, rector of Farley, Hampshire, that he was sent to Clare Hall, Cambridge. He graduated B.A. 1699, and M.A. 1703. He became a fellow and tutor of his college and took orders.

In 1711 he published 'A Demonstration of the Truth and Divinity of the Christian Religion,' and in the following year 'The Principles of Natural Philosophy, in which is shown the insufficiency of the present systems to give us any just account of that science.' The latter work was ridiculed and parodied in 'A Taste of Philosophical Fanaticism ... by a gentleman of the University of Gratz.' Greene, while taking an active part in college and parochial work, was convinced that the whole field of knowledge was his proper province, and devoted many years' leisure to the production of his next work, a large folio volume of 980 pages, entitled 'The Principles of the Philosophy of the Expansive and Contractive Forces, or an Enquiry into the Principles of the Modern Philosophy, that is, into the several chief Rational Sciences which are extant,' 1727. In the preface Greene, after being at some pains to prove himself a whig, declared his intention of proposing a philosophy, English, Cantabrigian, and Clarensian, which he ventured to call the 'Greenian,' because his name was 'not much worse in the letters which belonged to it than those of Galileo and Descartes.' The book is a monument of ill-digested and misapplied learning.

En 1727, Greene fue prefecto de la Universidad de Cambridge , y al año siguiente obtuvo su doctorado en Teología. Murió en Birmingham el 16 de agosto de 1730 y fue enterrado en All Saints, Cambridge , donde había oficiado durante tres años. En su testamento nombró a ocho albaceas, cinco de ellos directores de colegios de Cambridge, y dispuso que su cuerpo fuera diseccionado y el esqueleto colgado en la biblioteca del King's College ; se colocarían monumentos en su memoria en las capillas de los colegios Clare y King's, en la iglesia de Santa María y en Tamworth, para cada uno de los cuales proporcionó una larga descripción de sí mismo; finalmente, Clare Hall debía publicar sus obras póstumas, y con la condición de que se cumplieran estas y sus demás instrucciones, recibiría su patrimonio; de lo contrario, este iría a los colegios St. John's, Trinity y Jesus, y en caso de que alguno se negara, a Sidney Sussex. Ninguno de sus deseos fue cumplido, y un pariente de Greene declaró (Gent. Mag. 1783, ii. 657) que sus pertenencias permanecieron en poder de Sidney Sussex, pero que dicha universidad no conserva ningún registro de haber recibido las donaciones.

 Este artículo incorpora texto de una publicación que ahora es de dominio público : Stephen, Leslie ; Lee, Sidney , eds. (1890). " Greene, Robert (1678?-1730) ". Diccionario de Biografía Nacional . Vol. 23. Londres: Smith, Elder & Co.