Joseph Butler | |
|---|---|
| Bishop of Durham | |
 Portrait of Butler byJohn Vanderbank | |
| Diocese | Durham |
| In office | 1750–1752 |
| Predecessor | Edward Chandler |
| Successor | Richard Trevor |
| Other posts | Bishop of Bristol (1738–1750) Dean of St Paul's (1740–1750) |
| Orders | |
| Ordination | 26 October 1718 (deacon) 21 December 1718 (priest) by William Talbot |
| Consecration | 3 December 1738 |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1692-05-18)18 May 1692 |
| Died | 16 June 1752(1752-06-16) (aged 60) |
| Buried | 20 June 1752[1] (O.S.)Bristol Cathedral.[2] |
| Nationality | English (later British) |
| Denomination | Presbyterian Anglican (after 1714) |
| Residence | Rosewell House,Kingsmead Square, Bath (at death) |
| Parents | Thomas Butler[1] |
| Profession | Theologian,apologist,philosopher |
| Sainthood | |
| Feast day | 16 June (commemoration) |
| Education | |
| Education | Tewkesbury Academy Oriel College, Oxford |
| Philosophical work | |
| Era | 18th-century philosophy |
| Region | Western philosophy |
| School | Empiricism,Christian philosophy |
| Main interests | Theology |
| Notable ideas | Criticism ofdeism Analogies of religion Circularity objection to Locke's account of personal identity[3] |
Joseph Butler (18 May 1692O.S. – 16 June 1752O.S.)[4] was an EnglishAnglican bishop,theologian,apologist, andphilosopher, born inWantage in the English county ofBerkshire (now inOxfordshire). His principal works are theFifteen Sermons Preached at the Rolls Chapel (1726) andThe Analogy of Religion (1736).
He is known for critiques ofdeism,Thomas Hobbes'segoism, andJohn Locke's theory ofpersonal identity.[5] The many philosophers and religious thinkers Butler influenced includedDavid Hume,Thomas Reid,Adam Smith,[6]Henry Sidgwick,[7]John Henry Newman,[8] andC. D. Broad,[9] and is widely seen as "one of the pre-eminent English moralists."[10] He played a major, if underestimated role in developing 18th-century economic discourse, influencing political economistJosiah Tucker.[11]
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Butler was born on 18 May 1692.[13] The son of aPresbyterian linen draper, Butler was destined for the ministry of that church, and with the future archbishopThomas Secker, enteredSamuel Jones'sdissenting academy at Gloucester (later Tewkesbury) for the purpose. There he began a secret correspondence with the Anglican theologian and philosopherSamuel Clarke. In 1714, he decided to join theChurch of England and enteredOriel College,Oxford, receiving aBachelor of Arts degree in 1718 and named aDoctor of Civil Law on 8 December 1733.[1]
Butler was ordained a deacon on 26 October 1718 byWilliam Talbot,Bishop of Salisbury, in his Bishop's Palace, Salisbury, his palace chapel[14] and a priest on 21 December 1718 by Talbot atSt James's Church, Piccadilly.[1] After holding various other high positions, he becamerector of the rich living ofStanhope, County Durham.
In 1736 Butler became thehead chaplain ofGeorge II's wifeCaroline, on the advice ofLancelot Blackburne. He was nominatedBishop of Bristol on 19 October 1738 and consecrated a bishop on 3 December 1738 atLambeth Palace chapel. Remaining Bishop of Bristol, Butler was installedDean of St Paul's on 24 May 1740, keeping the office until his translation to Durham.[1] He is said apocryphally to have declined an offer to becomeArchbishop of Canterbury in 1747, but he served asClerk of the Closet to the king in 1746–1752. He was translated to Durham by theconfirmation of hiselection in October 1750; he was then enthroned by proxy on 9 November 1750.[1] He is buried in Bristol Cathedral.
Butler died in 1752 atRosewell House,Kingsmead Square inBath,Somerset.[15] His admirers have praised him as an excellent person and a diligent and conscientious churchman. Though indifferent to literature, he had some taste in the fine arts, especially architecture.
Joseph isremembered in theChurch of England with acommemoration on16 June.[16] He had his own collection of manuscripts (e. g.Lectionary 189).
During his lifetime and for many years after, Butler was best known for hisAnalogy of Religion, Natural and Revealed (1736), which according to historianWill Durant "remained for a century the chief buttress of Christian argument against unbelief."[17] English deists such asJohn Toland andMatthew Tindal had argued that nature provides clear evidence of an intelligent designer and artificer, but they rejected orthodox Christianity due to the incredibility of miracles and the cruelties and contradictions recorded in the Bible.
Butler'sAnalogy was one of many book-length replies to the deists, and long believed to be the most effective. Butler argued that nature itself was full of mysteries and cruelties and so shared the same alleged defects as the Bible. Arguing on empiricist grounds that all knowledge of nature and human conduct is merely probable, Butler appealed to a series of patterns ("analogies") observable in nature and human affairs, which in his view make the chief teachings of Christianity likely.
Butler argued that "because nature is a mess of riddles, we cannot expect revelation to be any clearer".[18] Today, Butler'sAnalogy is "now largely of historical interest,"[19] with the only part widely read being the section which deals with his criticism of John Locke's theory of personal identity.[3]
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A Butler scholar, Stephen Darwall, wrote: "Probably no figure had a greater impact on nineteenth-century British moral philosophy than Butler."[20] Butler's chief target in theSermons wasThomas Hobbes and the egoistic view of human nature he had defended inLeviathan (1651). Hobbes was a materialist who believed that science reveals a world in which all events are causally determined and in which all human choices flow unavoidably from whatever desire is most powerful in a person at a given time. Hobbes saw human beings as being violent, self-seeking, and power-hungry. Such a view left no place for genuine altruism, benevolence or concept of morality as traditionally conceived.[21]
In theSermons, Butler argues that human motivation is less selfish and more complex than Hobbes claimed. He maintains that the human mind is an organised hierarchy of a number of different impulses and principles, many of which are not fundamentally selfish. The ground floor, so to speak, holds a wide variety of specific emotions, appetites and affections, such as hunger, anger, fear and sympathy. They, in properly organised minds, are controlled by two superior principles: self-love (a desire to maximise one's own long-term happiness) and benevolence (a desire to promote general happiness). The more general impulses are in turn subject to the highest practical authority in the human mind: moral conscience. Conscience, Butler claims, is an inborn sense of right and wrong, an inner light and monitor, received from God.[22] Conscience tells one to promote the general happiness and personal happiness. Experience informs that the two aims largely coincide in the present life. For many reasons, Butler argues, unethical and self-centred people who care nothing for the public good are not usually very happy.
There are, however, rare cases where the wicked seem for a time to prosper. A perfect harmony of virtue and self-interest, Butler claimed, is guaranteed only by a just God, who in the afterlife rewards and punishes people as they deserve.[23]
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In Appendix 1 of theAnalogy, Butler offers a famous criticism ofJohn Locke's influential theory of "personal identity", an explanation of what makes someone the "same person" from one time to the next, despite all the physical and psychological changes experienced over that period. Locke claimed that personal identity is not from having the same body or the same soul but from having the same consciousness and memory. According to Locke, memory is the "glue" that ties the various stages of our life together and constitutes sameness of person. This section of theAnalogy is the only widely read part of it today.[3]
More precisely, Locke claims, Person A is the same person as Person B only in a case where A and B share at least some of the same memories. Butler said that the way "real" memories can be distinguished from false ones is that people who had the experiences that are truly remembered. Thus, Butler claimed, memory presupposes personal identity and so cannot constitute it.[24]
Butler is honoured on theliturgical calendar of the Episcopal Church (USA) on 16 June.[25]
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Cousin, John William (1910).A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature. London: J. M. Dent & Sons – viaWikisource. Works by or aboutJoseph Butler atWikisource
Media related toJoseph Butler at Wikimedia Commons
| Church of England titles | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Bishop of Bristol 1738–1750 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by Francis Hare, Bishop of Chichester | Dean of St Paul's 1740–1750 | Succeeded by Thomas Secker, Bishop of Oxford |
| Preceded by | Bishop of Durham 1750–1752 | Succeeded by |
