Adam Steuart (Stuart, Stewart) (1591–1654) was a Scottish philosopher and controversialist.

Life

He became professor at the Academy of Saumur in 1617. Andrew Pyle (editor), ''Dictionary of Seventeenth-Century British Philosophers'' (2000), article ''Steuart, Adam'', pp. 770-2. In 1644, he was in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, where he engaged in propaganda for the Presbyterians against the Independents. The first attack on the '' Apologeticall Narration'' of the Five Dissenting Brethren was Steuart's. The ''Second Part of the Duply to M. S. alias Two Brethren'' addressed the issue of

religious tolerance Religious toleration may signify "no more than forbearance and the permission given by the adherents of a dominant religion for other religions to exist, even though the latter are looked on with disapproval as inferior, mistaken, or harmful". ...

, which he classed with depravity. It was answered by

John Goodwin John Goodwin may refer to: Politicians *John Goodwin (Parliamentarian) (1603–1674), Member of Parliament for Reigate * John B. Goodwin (1850–1921), Mayor of Atlanta, Georgia in the late 1880s *John Noble Goodwin (1824–1887), 1st Governor of ...

. Steuart is mentioned (as A. S.) in

John Milton John Milton (9 December 1608 – 8 November 1674) was an English poet and intellectual. His 1667 epic poem ''Paradise Lost'', written in blank verse and including over ten chapters, was written in a time of immense religious flux and polit ...

's poem ''On the New Forcers of Conscience under the Long Parliament'', a caudate sonnet, along with

Samuel Rutherford Samuel Rutherford (also Rutherfurd or Rutherfoord; – 29 March 1661) was a Scottish Presbyterian pastor and theologian who wrote widely read letters, sermons, devotional and scholastic works. As a political theorist, he is known for " ...

and Thomas Edwards (and, implicitly,

Robert Baillie Robert Baillie (30 April 16021662) was a Church of Scotland minister who became famous as an author and a propagandist for the Covenanters.

). In 1644 he took up a position as Professor of Physics at the

University of Leiden Leiden University (abbreviated as ''LEI''; nl, Universiteit Leiden) is a public research university in Leiden, Netherlands. The university was founded as a Protestant university in 1575 by William, Prince of Orange, as a reward to the city of L ...

. With Jacobus Triglandius and

Jacobus Revius Jacobus Revius (born ''Jakob Reefsen''; November 1586 – 15 November 1658) was a Dutch poet, Calvinist theologian and church historian. His most renowned collection of poems, ''the Over-ysselsche Sangen en Dichten'' (1630), forms a high point of ...

he attacked

Cartesianism Cartesianism is the philosophical and scientific system of René Descartes and its subsequent development by other seventeenth century thinkers, most notably François Poullain de la Barre, Nicolas Malebranche and Baruch Spinoza. Descartes i ...

there. In what is now known as the Leiden Crisis, coming to a head in 1647, he opposed Adriaan Heereboord, over whom he had been brought in, and presided at a rowdy debate with the Leiden Cartesian Johannes de Raey.

René Descartes René Descartes ( or ; ; Latinized: Renatus Cartesius; 31 March 1596 – 11 February 1650) was a French philosopher, scientist, and mathematician, widely considered a seminal figure in the emergence of modern philosophy and science. Mathe ...

himself commented on Steuart, in ''Notae in Programma Quoddam'' (1648), to which Steuart replied in ''Notae in notas nobilissimi cujusdam viri in ipsius theses de Deo'' (1648). Steuart's party, the proponents of continuing to teach along the lines of Aristotelian philosophy, won a temporary victory.Roger Kenneth French, Andrew Wear (editors), ''The Medical Revolution of the Seventeenth Century'' (1989), p. 64. He was attacked by the theologian Samuel Maresius, during further controversy, as heterodox. He died in

Leiden Leiden (; in English and archaic Dutch also Leyden) is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland, Netherlands. The municipality of Leiden has a population of 119,713, but the city forms one densely connected agglomeration wit ...

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Steuart, Adam 1591 births 1654 deaths Scottish Presbyterians Scottish philosophers Academic staff of Leiden University