Abstract :
Aristotelianism and anti-Aristotelianism are essential categories for the interpretation of
political discourse in Stuart Ireland, Scotland, and England. In the 1650s, the Capuchin Richard O’Ferrall
defined the future of the Irish kingdom by means of its past. This Irish ancient constitution was not anchored
in J. G. A. Pocock’s common law mind, but rather in Aristotelianism. Ancient constitution discourse
in England and Scotland shared this Aristotelian basis. Responding to O’Ferrall, John Lynch, Catholic
archdeacon of Tuam, employed openly anti-Aristotelian arguments which had been pioneered by the
Jacobean attorney general for Ireland, Sir John Davies. Recognizing the Aristotelian and anti-Aristotelian
nature of these discourses enables the incorporation of both Catholic and Protestant writers, whether educated
in Ireland, England, or France, within a coherent account of political thought across the Stuart world.
