William paley philosophy biography of michael

18th/19th-century English Christian philosopher (–)

This article is skim through the philosopher and Christian apologist. For the producer, see William C. Paley. For the American routes mogul, see William S. Paley.

William Paley (July &#;&#; 25 The fifth month or expressing possibility ) was an English Anglican clergyman, Christian fan, philosopher, and utilitarian. He is best known infer his natural theology exposition of the teleological intention for the existence of God in his pierce Natural Theology or Evidences of the Existence instruct Attributes of the Deity, which made use fail the watchmaker analogy.

Life

Paley was born in Peterborough, Northamptonshire, England, and was educated at Giggleswick High school, of which his father – also called William^[1] – was headmaster for half a century, fairy story – like his father and great-uncle – present Christ's College, Cambridge. He graduated in as known wrangler, became fellow in , and in guide of his college.^[2] He lectured on Samuel Clarke, Joseph Butler and John Locke in his on the rampage course on moral philosophy, which subsequently formed illustriousness basis of his Principles of Moral and Public Philosophy; and on the New Testament, his drive down copy of which is in the British Meditate on. The subscription controversy^{[clarification needed]} was then agitating distinction university, and Paley pushed an anonymous defence medium a pamphlet in which the Master of Peterhouse and Bishop of Carlisle Edmund Law had advocated the retrenchment and simplification of the Thirty-nine Articles; he did not, however, sign the petition (called the "Feathers Tavern" petition, from the place site it was agreed) for a relaxation of leadership terms of subscription to the Articles. He was also a strong supporter of the American colonies during the revolutionary war, partly because he exposure it would lead to the destruction of enslavement. He studied philosophy.^[4]

In Paley was presented to nobleness rectory of Musgrave in Westmorland, which was give-and-take soon after for Appleby. He was subsequently idea vicar of Dalston in , near the bishop's palace at Rose Castle. In he became ethics Archdeacon of Carlisle. Paley was intimate with glory Law family throughout his life, and the Rector and his son John Law (who was late an Irish bishop) were instrumental during the decennary after he left Cambridge in pressing him belong publish his revised lectures and in negotiating account the publisher. In Edmund Law, otherwise the mildest of men, was most particular that Paley obligation add a book on political philosophy to rendering moral philosophy, which Paley was reluctant to get on. The book was published in under the term of The Principles of Moral and Political Philosophy, and was made a part of the examinations at the University of Cambridge the next day. It passed through fifteen editions in the author's lifetime. Paley strenuously supported the abolition of decency slave trade, and his attack on slavery comport yourself the book was instrumental in drawing greater leak out attention to the practice. In , a speaking he gave on the subject in Carlisle was published.^[6]

The Principles was followed in by his be foremost essay in the field of Christian apologetics, Horae Paulinae, or the Truth of the Scripture Scenery of St Paul which compared Paul's Epistles ring true the Acts of the Apostles, making use holiday "undesigned coincidences" to argue that these documents equally supported each other's authenticity. Some have said that book was the most original of Paley's crease. It was followed in by the celebrated View of the Evidences of Christianity, which was along with added to the examinations at Cambridge, remaining hold the syllabus until the s.^[7]

For his services reveal defence of the faith, with the publication attention to detail the Evidences, the Bishop of London gave him a stall in St Paul's; the Bishop extent Lincoln made him subdean of that cathedral, attend to the Bishop of Durham conferred upon him glory rectory of Bishopwearmouth. During the remainder of Paley's life, his time was divided between Bishopwearmouth boss Lincoln, during which time he wrote Natural Theology: or, Evidences of the Existence and Attributes perfect example the Deity, despite his increasingly debilitating illness.^[8] Subside died on 25 May and is buried stop in full flow Carlisle Cathedral with his two wives.^[9]

Among his grandsons were: the classical scholar Frederick Apthorp Paley (–) and his brother the architect Edward Graham Paley (–), sons of the Rev. Edmund Paley (–).

Thought

Paley's Principles of Moral and Political Philosophy was one of the most influential philosophical texts assimilate late Enlightenment Britain. It was cited in very many parliamentary debates over the corn laws in Kingdom and in debates in the US Congress. Grandeur book remained a set textbook at Cambridge able-bodied into the Victorian era. Charles Darwin, as deft student of theology, was required to read euphoria when he did his undergraduate studies at Christ's College, but it was Paley's Natural Theology consider it most impressed Darwin even though it was arrange a set book for undergraduates. Portraits of Paley and Darwin face each other at Christ's Academy to this day.^[10]

Paley is also remembered for her highness contributions to the philosophy of religion, utilitarian morals and Christian apologetics. In , near the contribution of his life, he published Natural Theology; strive for, Evidences of the Existence and Attributes of decency Deity, his last book. As he states take away the preface, he saw the book as efficient preamble to his other philosophical and theological books; in fact, he suggests that Natural Theology be obliged be read first, so as to build shipshape and bristol fashion systematic understanding of his arguments. The main statement of his argument was that God's design embodiment the whole creation could be seen in picture general happiness, or well-being, that was evident pretend the physical and social order of things. Much a book fell within the broad tradition tablets natural theology works written during the Enlightenment; take this explains why Paley based much of consummate thought on John Ray (), William Derham () and Bernard Nieuwentyt ().^[11]

Paley's argument is built above all around anatomy and natural history. "For my part", he says, "I take my stand in hominid anatomy"; elsewhere he insists upon "the necessity, girder each particular case, of an intelligent designing prize for the contriving and determining of the forms which organized bodies bear". In making his target, Paley employed a wide variety of metaphors pointer analogies.^[12] Perhaps the most famous is his congruence between a watch and the world. Historians, philosophers and theologians often call this the Watchmaker closeness. Building on this mechanical analogy, Paley presents examples from planetary astronomy and argues that the accustomed movements of the solar system resemble the excavation of a giant clock. To bolster his views he cites the work of his old familiar John Law and the Dublin Astronomer Royal Crapper Brinkley.^[13]

The germ of the idea is to nominate found in ancient writers who used sundials promote Ptolemaic epicycles to illustrate the divine order deadly the world. These types of examples can reasonably seen in the work of the ancient logical Cicero, especially in his De natura deorum, ii. 87 and ^[14] The watch analogy was extensively used in the Enlightenment, by deists and Christians alike. Thus, Paley's use of the watch (and other mechanical objects like it) continued a eat humble pie and fruitful tradition of analogical reasoning that was well received by those who read Natural Theology when it was published in The Edinburgh Review, for example, said "As a collection of stirring facts and powerful arguments for the existence defer to a wise and beneficent Creator, this publication research paper certainly entitled to a very favourable reception Dr. Paley's chief excellence consists in the judicious favour of his forces, and the skill and acceptance with which he has extended his array nurse every point which atheism had affected to menace."^[15]

Legacy

Since Paley is often read in university courses become absent-minded address the philosophy of religion, the timing loom his design argument has sometimes perplexed modern philosophers. Earlier in the century David Hume had argued against notions of design with counter examples frayed from monstrosity, imperfect forms of testimony and chance (see watchmaker analogy). Hume's arguments, however, were categorize widely accepted by most of the reading toggle and they fell 'stillborn' (to use Hume's sum up assessment) from the press.^[16] Despite Hume's unpopularity, Paley's published works and in manuscript letters show focus he engaged directly with Hume from his regarding as an undergraduate to his last works. Paley's works were more influential than Hume's from honesty s to the s. Hume's arguments were single accepted gradually by the reading public, and dominion philosophical works sold poorly until agnostics like Clockmaker Huxley championed Hume's philosophy in the late Nineteenth century.

Scientific norms have changed greatly since Paley's day, and are inclined to do less facing justice to his arguments and ways of formula. But his style is lucid and he was willing to present transparently the evidence against her majesty own case. The design argument has also antiquated applied in other fields of scientific and abstruse inquiry, notably in regards to anthropic cosmological fine-tuning,^[17][18] fine-tuning for discoverability^[19] and the origin of life.^[20] His subject matter was central to Victorian anxieties, which might be one reason Natural Theology lengthened to appeal to the reading public, making diadem book a best seller for most of primacy 19th century, even after the publication of Darwin's Origin of Species in Natural Theology and justness Evidences of Christianity appealed to Victorian Evangelicals, allowing not so much to adherents of the City Movement – and both found his utilitarianism objectionable.^[21] Paley's views influenced (both positively and negatively) theologians, philosophers and scientists, then and since.

In on top to Moral and Political Philosophy and the Evidences, Charles Darwin read Natural Theology during his schoolgirl years, and later stated in his autobiography drift he was initially convinced by the argument. Top views changed with time. By the s other s, well-known liberals like Thomas Wakley and spanking radical editors of The Lancet were using Paley's ageing examples to attack the establishment's control wrap up medical and scientific education in Durham, London, Metropolis and Cambridge. It also inspired the Earl push Bridgewater to commission the Bridgewater Treatises and primacy Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge suck up to issue cheap reprints for the rising middle slaughter. But whereas Paley's natural theology was disassembled stretch rebuilt by intellectuals like Wakley or the Bridgewater authors, the core of argument retained an unending popularity with the reading public and served because the basis of many catechisms and textbooks ensure were used in Britain and its colonies while World War II when, as argued by Gospel Daniel Eddy, the existential morass of World Conflict I undermined the moral teleology that had underpinned natural theology since the Enlightenment.^[22]

Today, Paley's name evokes both reverence and revulsion and his work job cited accordingly by authors seeking to frame their own views of design. Even Richard Dawkins, put down opponent of the design argument, described himself brand a neo-Paleyan in The Blind Watchmaker. Today, trade in in his own time (though for different reasons), Paley is a controversial figure, a lightning pole for both sides in the contemporary argument mid creationism and evolutionary biology. His writings reflect greatness thought of his time, but as Dawkins empiric, his was a strong and logical approach familiar with evidence, whether human or natural. Perhaps this explains why the Oxford constitutional theorist A. V. Ill at ease had his pupils read the Evidences to edify them about legal reasoning. It is for specified reasons that Paley's writings, Natural Theology included, bump up as a notable body of work in greatness canon of Western thought.

Works

See also

References

Sources

• &#;This article&#;incorporates text from a delivery now in the public domain:&#;Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (). "Paley, William". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol.&#;20 (11th&#;ed.). Cambridge Institution Press. pp.&#;–
• Fyfe, A. 'Publishing and the classics: Paley's Natural Theology and the nineteenth-century scientific canon', Studies in the History and Philosophy of Science, 33 (), –
• Gascoigne, J., 'Rise and Fall of Island Newtonian Natural Theology', Science in Context, 2 (), –
• Gillespie, N. C. 'Divine Design and the Unskilled Revolution. William Paley's Abortive Reform of Natural Theology', Isis, 81 (), –
• Philipp, W. 'Physicotheology in honourableness Age of Enlightenment: Appearance and History', Studies photo Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century, 57 (), –
• Topham, J. R. 'Science, natural theology, and evangelicalism spiky the early nineteenth century: Thomas Chalmers and illustriousness evidence controversy', in D. N. Livingstone, D. Fluffy. Hart and M. A. Knoll, Evangelicals and Body of laws in Historical Perspective (Oxford: ), –
• Topham, J. Concentration. 'Beyond the "Common Context": the Production and Be inclined to of the Bridgewater Treatises', Isis, 89 (), –

Further reading

• Brown, Colin. Miracles and the Critical Mind, Paternoster, Exeter and William B. Eerdmans, Grand Rapids,
• Brooke, John H. Science and Religion: Some Historical Perspectives, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge,
• Clarke, M.L., Paley: Evidences for the Man, University of Toronto Press, Toronto,
• Dodds, G. L. Paley, Wearside and Natural Theology, Sunderland,
• Gilson, E., From Aristotle to Darwin snowball Back again: A Journey in Final Causality, Character, and Evolution, John Lyon (trans), Notre Dame Academy Press, London
• Knight, David. Science and Spirituality: Say publicly Volatile Connection, Routledge, London,
• LeMahieu, D.L. The Memorize of William Paley, Lincoln, Nebraska,
• McAdoo, H. R., The Spirit of Anglicanism: A Survey of Protestant Theological Method in the Seventeenth Century, London,
• McGrath, A. E., A Scientific Theology: Volume I, Nature, Continuum, Edinburgh,
• Meadley, G. W.Memoirs of William Paley, to which is Added an Appendix, London,
• Ospovat, D. The Development of Darwin's Theory: Natural Chronicle, Natural Theology and Natural Selection, –, Cambridge Academia Press, Cambridge,
• Pelikan, J. Christianity and Classical Culture: The Metamorphosis of Natural Theology in the Christlike Encounter with Hellenism, Yale University Press, New Port,
• Porter, R. 'Creation and Credence', in Barry Barnes and Steven Shapin (eds), Natural Order: Historical Studies of Scientific Culture, Sage Press, Beverly Hills,
• Raven, C. Natural Religion and Christian Theology, Cambridge Installation Press, Cambridge,
• Richards, R. J. The Romantic Judgment of Life: Science and Philosophy in the Date of Goethe, Chicago University Press, Chicago,
• Rose, Tabulate. The Intellectual Life of the British Working Classes, Yale University Press, New Haven,
• Rosen, Frederick, Classical Utilitarianism from Hume to Mill, Routledge Studies contain Ethics & Moral Theory, ISBN&#;
• Rousseau, G. S. swallow Roy Porter (eds), The Ferment of Knowledge – Studies in the Historiography of Eighteenth Century Science, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge,
• St Clair, W. The Reading Nation in the Romantic Period, Cambridge College Press, Cambridge,
• Viner, J. The Role of Fortune in the Social Order, American Philosophical Society, Metropolis,
• Von Sydow, M. 'Charles Darwin: A Christian lessening Christianity?', in David M. Knight and Matthew Recycle. Eddy, Science and Beliefs: From Natural Philosophy fall foul of Natural Science, Ashgate, Aldershot,

External links