%0 Thesis
%9 Doctoral
%A Mitchell, Annie
%B History
%D 2002
%F discovery:1317678
%I University of London
%P 282
%T The character of an independent Whig: a study of the work of John Trenchard and Thomas Gordon, including a comparative analysis of the social and political thought of Bernard Mandeville
%U https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1317678/
%X Traditionally Cato's Letters have been seen as a keynote text in the construction of the civic  humanist paradigm, a perspective which has come to dominate contemporary understanding  of the intellectual currents at work in the shaping of eighteenth century Britain and America.  Within this paradigm the Letters have been viewed as emblematic of a 'neo-Harringtonian'  critique of Court corruption and the 'new economic order'.  However there are significant problems with this interpretation and this thesis argues that the  attitude of Trenchard and Gordon towards Walpole's ministry was more nuanced than is  usually suggested; that they were prepared to lend his administration their support when  occasion demanded. Against the trend to downplay the religious and ideological differences  between Whigs and Tories, in order to prioritise the Court-Country division, this thesis  suggests that Trenchard and Gordon's position towards Walpole can best be understood in  terms of their commitment to traditional Whig principles of freedom of conscience and  opposition to arbitrary rule, rather than on the basis of a preoccupation with issues of wealth  and virtue. Contrary to the accepted view that Trenchard and Gordon were opposed to  commerce and the financial instruments which it generated, and that they viewed a society  motivated by self-interest as a threat to civic virtue and liberty, this thesis contends that their  'scientific' political and moral philosophy both naturalised self-interest and redrew it as the  foundation of liberty.  In the process of calling into question 'Cato's' status as a civic humanist icon, this thesis also  points to similarities between Trenchard and Gordon's thought and that of Bernard  Mandeville, who conventionally has been represented as Cato's antithesis. By comparing the  work of all three writers, and the way in which they were viewed by contemporaries, it is  argued that in terms of religious, political and moral philosophy there are major points of  convergence in their ideology.
%Z Thesis digitised by British Library EThOS