Joseph Butler from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia

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Joseph Butler From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For other people named Joseph Butler, see Joseph Butler (disambiguation).

The Rt Revd Joseph Butler

Bishop of Durham

Engraving of Butler.

Diocese Diocese of Durham

In office October 1750 (confirmed)[1] – 1752 (death)

Predecessor Edward Chandler

Successor Richard Trevor

Other posts Bishop of Bristol (19 October 1738 {nominated}–1750)

Dean of St Paul's (24 May 1740 {installed}–1750)[1]

Personal details Born 18 May 1692

Wantage, Berkshire, England

Died 16 June 1752 (aged 60)

Bath, Somerset, Great Britain

Buried 20 June 1752,[1] Bristol Cathedral[2]

Nationality English (later British)

Denomination Anglican

Residence Rosewell House, Kingsmead Square, Bath (at death)

Parents Thomas Butler[1]

Spouse unmarried

Profession theologian, apologist,philosopher (see below)

Alma mater Oriel College, Oxford

Sainthood

Feast day 16 June (commemoration)

Joseph Butler

Era 18th-century philosophy

Region Western Philosophy

School British Empiricism, Christian philosophy Influences[show]

Influenced[show]

[show]Ordination history of Joseph Butler

Joseph Butler (18 May 1692 – 16 June 1752) was an English bishop, theologian, apologist, and philosopher. He was born in Wantage in the English county ofBerkshire (now Oxfordshire). He is known, among other things, for his critique of Thomas Hobbes's egoism and John Locke's theory of personal identity.[4] During his life and after his death, Butler influenced many philosophers, including David Hume, Thomas Reid, and Adam Smith.[5]

Contents [hide]

 1 Life  2 Works o 2.1 Design argument o 2.2 Criticism of Locke  3 Death and legacy  4 Publications  5 See also  6 Notes  7 References and further reading  8 External links

Life[edit] The son of a Presbyterian linen-draper, he was destined for the ministry of that church, and—along with future archbishop Thomas Secker—entered Samuel Jones's dissenting academy at Gloucester (later Tewkesbury) for that purpose. Whilst there, he entered into a secret correspondence with the conformist controversialist Samuel Clarke; his letters were taken to Gloucester post office by Secker, who also collected Clarke's responses from there. Clarke later published this correspondence. In 1714, decided to enter the Church of England, and went to Oriel College, Oxford. After holding various other high positions, he becamerector of the rich living of Stanhope, County Durham. In 1736 he was made the head chaplain of King George II's wife Caroline, on the advice of Lancelot Blackburne. In 1738 he was appointed bishop of Bristol. He is said (apocryphally) to have declined an offer to become the archbishop of Canterbury in 1747. He was enthroned as Bishop of Durham (by proxy) on 9 November 1750.[1]

Works[edit] He is most famous for his Fifteen Sermons Preached at the Rolls Chapel (1726) and Analogy of Religion, Natural and Revealed (1736). The Analogy is an important work of Christian apologetics in the history of the controversies over deism's apologetic concentrated on "the general analogy between the principles of divine government, as set forth by the biblical revelation, and those observable in the course of nature, [an analogy which] leads us to the warrantable conclusion that there is one Author of both."[6] Butler's arguments combined a cumulative case for faith using probabilistic reasoning to persuade deists and others to reconsider orthodox faith. Overall, his two books are remarkable and original contributions to ethics and theology. They depend for their effect entirely upon the force of their reasoning, for they have no graces of style. The "Sermons on Human Nature" is commonly studied as an answer to Hobbes' philosophy of psychological egoism. These two books are considered by his followers to be among the most powerful and original contributions to ethics, apologetics and theology which have ever been made.

Principia Ethica title page, with Butler's epigram

Today, he is commonly cited for the blunt epigram, "Every thing is what it is, and not another thing." Design argument[edit] In 1736, he inferred a form of the argument for the evidence of design: As the manifold Appearances of Design and of final Causes, in the Constitution of the World, prove it to be the Work of an Mind . . . The appearances of design and of final causes in the constitution of nature as really prove this acting agent to be an . . . ten thousand thousand Instances of Design, cannot but prove a ..[7] William Paley taught his works and built on his design argument using the Watchmaker analogy. Criticism of Locke[edit] That Personality is not a permanent, but a transient thing: That it lives and dies, begins and ends, continually: That no one can any more remain one and the same person two Moments together, than two successive Moments can be one and the same Moment: that our Substance is indeed continually changing; but whether this be so or not, is, it seems, nothing to the purpose; since it is not Substance, but Consciousness alone, which constitutes Personality; which Consciousness, being successive, cannot be the same in any two Moments, nor consequently the personality constituted by it." And from hence it must follow, that it is a Fallacy upon Ourselves, to charge our present Selves with any thing we did, or to imagine our present Selves interested in any thing which befell us, yesterday, or that our present Self will be interested in what will befall us to morrow; since our present Self is not, in Reality, the same with the Self of Yesterday, but another like Self or Person coming in its Room, and mistaken for it; to which another Self will succeed to morrow.[8] Death and legacy[edit]

Butler died in 1752 at Rosewell House, Kingsmead Square in Bath, Somerset.[9] His admirers praise him as an excellent man, and a diligent and conscientious churchman. Though indifferent to general literature, he had some taste in the fine arts, especially architecture. In the calendars of the Anglican communion his feast day is 16 June. He has his own collection of manuscripts (e.g. Lectionary 189).

Publications[edit]

 Several letters to the Reverend Dr. Clarke, 1716, 1719, 1725 - reprinted in Volume 1 of Gladstone's edition of Butler's works  Fifteen sermons preached at the Rolls Chapel, 1726, 1729, 1736, 1749, 1759, 1765, 1769, 1774, 1792  The Analogy of Religion, Natural and Revealed, to the Constitution and Course of Nature, 1736, 1740, 1750, 1754, 1764, 1765, 1771, 1775, 1785, 1788, 1791, 1793, 1796, 1798  A sermon preached before the Incorporated Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, 1739  A sermon preached before the Right Honourable the Lord-Mayor, 1740  A sermon preached before the House of Lords, 1741, 1747  A sermon preached in the parish-church of Christ-Church, London, 1745  A sermon, preached before His Grace Charles Duke of Richmond, Lenox, and Aubigny, president, 1748, 1751  Six sermons preached upon publick occasions, 1749  A catalogue of the libraries [...], 1753  A charge delivered to the clergy at the primary visitation of the diocese of Durham, 1751, 1786 - reprinted in Volume 2 of Gladstone's edition of Butler's works