Samuel Clarke.

Samuel Clarke (October 11, 1675 – May 17, 1729) was an English philosopher. This image has been released into the public domain by the copyright holder, its copyright has expired, or it is ineligible for copyright. ... This image has been released into the public domain by the copyright holder, its copyright has expired, or it is ineligible for copyright. ... October 11 is the 284th day of the year (285th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Events January 5 - The Battle of Turckeim June 18 - Battle of Fehrbellin August 10 - King Charles II of England places the foundation stone of the Royal Greenwich Observatory in London - construction begins November 11 - Guru Gobind Singh becomes the Tenth Guru of the Sikhs. ... May 17 is the 137th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (138th in leap years). ... Events July 30 - Baltimore, Maryland is founded. ... The English are an ethnic group originating in the lowlands of Great Britain and are descendent primarily from the Anglo-Saxons, the Celts with minor influences from the Scandanavians and other groups. ... A philosopher is a person who thinks deeply regarding people, society, the world, and/or the universe. ...

The son of Edward Clarke, an alderman who represented the city of Norwich in parliament, was educated at the free school of Norwich and at Caius College, Cambridge. The philosophy of René Descartes was the reigning system at the university; Clarke, however, mastered the new system of Isaac Newton, and contributed greatly to its extension by publishing a Latin version of the Traité de physique of Jacques Rohault (1620-1675) with valuable notes, which he finished before he was twenty-two. The system of Rohault was founded entirely upon Cartesian principles, and was previously known only through the medium of a crude Latin version. Clarke's translation (1697) continued to be used as a text-book in the university till supplanted by the treatises of Newton, which it had been designed to introduce. Four editions were issued, the last and best being that of 1718. It was translated into English in 1723 by his younger brother Dr John Clarke, dean of Sarum. This article is about the English city. ... Full name Gonville and Caius College Motto - Named after Edmund Gonville & John Caius Previous names Gonville Hall (1348), Gonville & Caius (1557) Established 1348 Sister College Brasenose College Master Neil McKendrick Location Trinity St Undergraduates 468 Graduates 291 Homepage Boatclub Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, generally known as Caius (though pronounced... René Descartes (March 31, 1596 – February 11, 1650), also known as Renatus Cartesius (latinized form), was a highly influential French philosopher, mathematician, scientist, and writer. ... Sir Isaac Newton, (4 January 1643 – 31 March 1727) [ OS: 25 December 1642 – 20 March 1727][1] was an English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, natural philosopher, and alchemist, regarded by many as the greatest figure in the history of science. ... Latin is an ancient Indo-European language originally spoken in Latium, the region immediately surrounding Rome. ... John Clarke (1682--1757) was an English natural philosopher and dean of Salisbury Cathedral from 1728 to his death in 1757 [1]. John Clarke was the son of Edward Clarke, an alderman who represented the city of Norwich in parliament, and the younger brother of the philosopher Samuel Clarke. ...

Religious Studies

Clarke afterwards devoted himself to the study of Scripture in the original, and of the primitive Christian writers. Having taken holy orders, he became chaplain to John Moore, bishop of Norwich, who became his friend and patron. In 1699 he published two treatises: Three Practical Essays on Baptism, Confirmation and Repentance and Some Reflections on that part of a book called Amyntor, or a Defence of Milton's Life, which relates to the Writings of the Primitive Fathers, and the Canon of the New Testament. In 1701 he published A Paraphrase upon the Gospel of St Matthew, which was followed, in 1702, by the Paraphrases upon the Gospels of St Mark and St Luke, and soon afterwards by a third volume upon St John. They were subsequently printed together in two volumes and have since passed through several editions. He intended to treat in the same manner the remaining books of the New Testament, but his design was unfulfilled.

Meanwhile he had been presented by Bishop Moore to the rectory of Drayton, near Norwich. As Boyle lecturer, he dealt in 1704 with the Being and Attributes of God, and in 1705 with the Evidences of Natural and Revealed Religion. These lectures, first printed separately, were afterwards published together under the title of A Discourse concerning the Being and Attributes of God, the Obligations of Natural Religion, and the Truth and Certainly of the Christian Revelation, in opposition to Thomas Hobbes, Spinoza, the author of the Oracles of Reason, and other Deniers of Natural and Revealed Religion. “Hobbes” redirects here. ... Benedictus de Spinoza or Baruch de Spinoza (Hebrew: ברוך שפינוזה) (lived November 24, 1632 – February 21, 1677) was a Dutch philosopher of Portuguese Jewish origin. ...

In 1706 he wrote a refutation of Dr Henry Dodwell's views on the immortality of the soul, and this drew him into controversy with Anthony Collins. He also translated Newton's Optics, for which the author presented him with £500. In the same year through the influence of Bishop Moore, he obtained the rectory of St Benet's, Paul's Wharf, London. Soon afterwards Queen Anne appointed him one of her chaplains in ordinary, and in 1709 presented him to the rectory of St James's, Westminster. He then took the degree of doctor in divinity, defending as his thesis the two propositions: Nullum fidei Christianae dogma, in Sacris Scripturis traditum, est rectae rationi dissentaneum, and Sine actionum humanarum libertate nulla potest esse religio. During the same year, at the request of the author, he revised William Whiston's English translation of the Apostolical Constitutions. Events March 27 - Concluding that Emperor Iyasus I of Ethiopia had abdicated by retiring to a monastery, a council of high officials appoint Tekle Haymanot I Emperor of Ethiopia May 23 - Battle of Ramillies September 7 - The Battle of Turin in the War of Spanish Succession - forces of Austria and... Henry Dodwell (October, 1641 - June 7, 1711), scholar, theologian and, controversial writer, was born in October 1641 in Dublin. ... This page is about Anthony Collins the philosopher. ... Anne (6 February 1665 – 1 August 1714) became Queen of England and Ireland and Queen of Scots on 8 March 1702. ... William Whiston William Whiston (December 9, 1667 - August 22, 1752), English divine and mathematician, was born at Norton in Leicestershire, of which village his father was rector. ...

In 1712 he published a carefully punctuated and annotated edition of Caesar's Commentaries, with elegant engravings, dedicated to John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough. During the same year he published his celebrated treatise on The Scripture Doctrine of the Trinity. It is divided into three parts. The first contains a collection and exegesis of all the texts in the New Testament relating to the doctrine of the Trinity; in the second the doctrine is set forth at large, and explained in particular and distinct propositions; and in the third the principal passages in the liturgy of the Church of England relating to the doctrine of the Trinity are considered. Whiston says that, some time before publication, a message was sent to him from Sidney Godolphin "that the affairs of the public were with difficulty then kept in the hands of those that were for liberty; that it was therefore an unseasonable time for the publication of a book that would make a great noise and disturbance; and that therefore they desired him to forbear till a fitter opportunity should offer itself,"--a message that Clarke entirely disregarded. The ministers were right in their conjectures; the work not only provoked a great number of replies, but occasioned a formal complaint from the Lower House of Convocation. Clarke, in reply, drew up an apologetic preface, and afterwards gave several explanations, which satisfied the Upper House. // Events Treaty of Aargau signed between Catholic and Protestants. ... John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough (1650-1722) was an English soldier and statesman whose career spanned the reigns of five monarchs throughout the late 17th and early 18th centuries. ... For other uses, see Trinity (disambiguation). ... John 21:1 Jesus Appears to His Disciples--Alessandro Mantovani: the Vatican, Rome. ... The word leitourgia is derived from the two Greek words, leos and ergon. Leos, meaning the people of God and Ergon meaning the work. ... The Church of England is the officially established Christian church[1] in England, and acts as the mother and senior branch of the worldwide Anglican Communion, as well as a founding member of the Porvoo Communion. ... Sidney Godolphin, 1st Earl of Godolphin Sidney Godolphin, 1st Earl of Godolphin (c. ...

Correspondence with Leibniz

In 1715 and 1716 he had a discussion with Gottfried Leibniz relative to the principles of natural philosophy and religion, which was at length cut short by the death of his antagonist. A collection of the papers which passed between them was published in 1717 (cf. GV Leroy, Die philos. Probleme in dem Briefwechsel Leibniz und Clarke, Giessen, 1893). It has been suggested that this article be split into multiple articles. ...

Later Life and Works

In 1719 he was presented by Nicholas 1st Baron Lechmere, to the mastership of Wigston's hospital in Leicester. In 1724 he published seventeen sermons, eleven of which had not before been printed. In 1727, on the death of Sir Isaac Newton, he was offered by the court the place of master of the mint, worth on an average from £1200 to £1500 a year. This secular preferment, however, he absolutely refused. In 1728 was published "A Letter from Dr Clarke to Benjamin Hoadly, F.R.S., occasioned by the controversy relating to the Proportion of Velocity and Force in Bodies in Motion," printed in the Philosophical Transactions. In 1729 he published the first twelve books of Homer's Iliad. This edition, dedicated to William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, was highly praised by Bishop Hoadly. On Sunday, the 11th of May 1729, when going out to preach before the judges at Serjeants' Inn, he was seized with a sudden illness, which caused his death on the Saturday following. Events January 14 - King Philip V of Spain abdicates the throne February 20 - The premiere of Giulio Cesare, an Italian opera by George Frideric Handel, takes place in London June 23 - Treaty of Constantinople signed. ... Benjamin Hoadly, painted by William Hogarth, c. ... Homer (Greek: , ) was an early Greek poet and aoidos (rhapsode) traditionally credited with the composition of the Iliad and the Odyssey. ... It has been suggested that Deception of Zeus be merged into this article or section. ... Prince William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland (April 15, 1721–October 31, 1765), a younger son of King George II of Great Britain and Queen Caroline, was a noted military leader. ...

Soon after his death his brother, Dr John Clarke, published, from his original manuscripts, An Exposition of the Church Catechism, and ten volumes of sermons. The Exposition is composed of the lectures which he read every Thursday morning, for some months in the year, at St James's church. In the latter part of his life he revised them with great care, and left them completely prepared for the press. Three years after his death appeared also the last twelve books of the Iliad, published by his son Samuel Clarke, the first three of these books and part of the fourth having, as he states, been revised and annotated by his father. John Clarke (1682--1757) was an English natural philosopher and dean of Salisbury Cathedral from 1728 to his death in 1757 [1]. John Clarke was the son of Edward Clarke, an alderman who represented the city of Norwich in parliament, and the younger brother of the philosopher Samuel Clarke. ... Codex Manesse, fol. ... A sermon is an oration by a prophet or member of the clergy. ...

In disposition Clarke was cheerful and even playful. An intimate friend relates that he once found him swimming upon a table. At another time Clarke on looking out at the window saw a grave blockhead approaching the house; upon which he cried out, "Boys, boys, be wise; here comes a fool." Dr Warton, in his observations upon Pope's line, "Unthought-of frailties cheat us in the wise," says, "Who could imagine that Locke was fond of romances; that Newton once studied astrology; that Dr Clarke valued himself on his agility, and frequently amused himself in a private room of his house in leaping over the tables and chairs?"

Philosophy

Clarke was eminent in theology, mathematics, metaphysics and philology, but his chief strength lay in his logical power. The materialism of Hobbes, the pantheism of Spinoza, the empiricism of Locke, the determinism of Leibniz, Collins' necessitarianism, Dodwell's denial of the natural immortality of the soul, rationalistic attacks on Christianity, and the morality of the sensationalists--all these he opposed with a thorough conviction of the truth of the principles which he advocated. His reputation rests to a large extent on his effort to demonstrate the existence of God and his theory of the foundation of rectitude. The former is not a purely a priori argument, nor is it presented as such by its author. It starts from a fact and it often explicitly appeals to facts. The intelligence, for example, of the self-existence arid original cause of all things is, he says, "not easily proved a priori," but "demonstrably proved a posteriori from the variety and degrees of perfection in things, and the order of causes and effects, from the intelligence that created beings are confessedly endowed with, and from the beauty, order, and final purpose of things." The theses maintained in the argument are: Theology (Greek θεος, theos, God, + λογια, logia, words, sayings, or discourse) is reasoned discourse concerning religion, spirituality and God or the gods. ... Euclid, Greek mathematician, 3rd century BC, as imagined by by Raphael in this detail from The School of Athens. ... Plato and Aristotle (right), by Raphael (Stanza della Segnatura, Rome). ... Philology is the study of ancient texts and languages. ... In philosophy, materialism is that form of physicalism which holds that the only thing that can truly be said to exist is matter; that fundamentally, all things are composed of material and all phenomena are the result of material interactions. ... Pantheism (Greek: pan = all and Theos = God) literally means God is All and All is God. It is the view that everything is of an all-encompassing immanent God; or that the universe, or nature, and God are equivalent. ... In philosophy generally, empiricism is a theory of knowledge emphasizing the role of experience in the formation of ideas, while discounting the notion of innate ideas. ... This article is about John Locke, the English philosopher. ... It has been suggested that this article be split into multiple articles. ... This page is about Anthony Collins the philosopher. ... Henry Dodwell (October, 1641 - June 7, 1711), scholar, theologian and, controversial writer, was born in October 1641 in Dublin. ... Christianity is a monotheistic[1] religion centered on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as presented in the New Testament. ... Sensationalism is a manner of being extremely controversial, loud, attention-grabbing, or otherwise sensationalistic. ... The terms a priori and a posteriori are used in philosophy to distinguish between two different types of propositional knowledge. ...

1. That something has existed from eternity
2. that there has existed from eternity some one immutable and independent being
3. that that immutable and independent being, which has existed from eternity, without any external cause of its existence, must be self-existent, that is, necessarily existing
4. what the substance or essence of that being is, which is self-existent or necessarily existing, we have no idea, neither is it at all possible for us to comprehend it
5. that though the substance or essence of the self-existent being is itself absolutely incomprehensible to us, yet many of the essential attributee of his nature are strictly demonstrable as well as his existence, and, in the first place, that he must be of necessity eternal
6. that the self-existent being must of necessity be infinite and omnipresent
7. must be but one
8. must be an intelligent being
9. must be not a necessary agent, but a being endued with liberty and choice
10. must of necessity have infinite power
11. must be infinitely wise, and
12. must of necessity be a being of infinite goodness, justice, and truth, and all other moral perfections, such as become the supreme governor and judge of the world.

In order to establish his sixth thesis, Clarke contends that time and space, eternity and immensity, are not substances, but attributes-the attributes of a self-existent being. Edmund Law, Dugald Stewart, Lord Brougham, and many other writers, have, in consequence, represented Clarke as arguing from the existence of time and space to the existence of Deity. This may be regarded as a mis-interpretation. The existence of an immutable, independent, and necessary being is supposed to be proved before any reference is made to the nature of time and space. Clarke has been generally supposed to have derived the opinion that time and space are attributes of an infinite immaterial and spiritual being from the Scholium Generale, first published in the second edition of Newton's Principia (1714). However, Clarke's work on the Being and Attributes of God appeared nine years before that Scholium. The view propounded by Clarke may have been derived from the Midrash, the Kabbalah, Philo, Henry More, or Cudworth, or possibly from conversations with Newton. Rt Rev Edmund Law (1703-1787). ... Dugald Stewart. ... Please wikify (format) this article as suggested in the Guide to layout and the Manual of Style. ... Midrash (Hebrew: מדרש; plural midrashim) is a Hebrew word referring to a method of exegesis of a Biblical text. ... Kabbalah (Hebrew: ‎, Tiberian: , Qabbālāh, Israeli: Kabala) literally means receiving, in the sense of a received tradition, and is sometimes transliterated as Cabala, Kabbala, Qabalah, or other permutations. ... Philo (20 BCE - 40 CE), known also as Philo of Alexandria and as Philo Judeaus, was a Hellenized Jewish philosopher born in Alexandria, Egypt. ... Henry More. ... Ralph Cudworth (1617 - June 26, 1688) was an English philosopher, the leader of the Cambridge Platonists. ...

Clarke's ethical theory of "fitness" is formulated on the analogy of mathematics. He held that in relation to the will things possess an objective fitness similar to the mutual consistency of things in the physical universe. This fitness God has given to actions, as he has given laws to Nature; and the fitness is as immutable as the laws. The theory was criticized by Jouffroy, Amédée Jacques, Sir James Mackintosh, Thomas Brown and others. It is said, for example, that Clarke made virtue consist in conformity to the relations of things universally, although the whole tenor of his argument shows him to have had in view conformity to such relations only as belong to the sphere of moral agency. It is true that he might have emphasized the relation of moral fitness to the will, and in this respect Johann Friedrich Herbart has been regarded as having improved on Clarke's statement of the case. To say, however, that Clarke simply confused mathematics and morals by justifying the moral criterion on a mathematical basis is a mistake. He compared the two subjects for the sake of the analogy. Théodore Simon Jouffroy (July 6, 1796 - February 4, 1842) was a French philosopher. ... Sir James Mackintosh (October 24, 1765 - May 30, 1832), Scottish publicist, was undoubtedly one of the most cultured and catholic-minded men of his time. ... Thomas Brown (January 9, 1778 - April 2, 1820) was a Scottish metaphysician. ... Johann Friedrich Herbart Johann Friedrich Herbart (May 4, 1776 - August 11, 1841), was a German philosopher, psychologist, and founder of pedagogy as an academic discipline. ...

Clarke had an influence on Enlightenment philosophers including Lord Monboddo, who referred to Clarke's writings in at least twelve different publications. Generally Monboddo concurred with Clarke on theological topics and in regard to Newtonian ideas, but criticized Clarke for his "inadequate knowledge" of the ancients. Clarke's work as a whole has been regarded as an attempt to present the doctrines of the Cartesian school in a form which would not shock the conscience of his time. The Age of Enlightenment (French: Siècle des Lumières, German: Aufklärung) refers to the eighteenth century in European and American philosophy, or the longer period including the Age of Reason. ... James Burnett, Lord Monboddo (1714 - May 26, 1799) was a Scottish judge, scholar and eccentric. ...

References

See W Whiston's Historical Memoirs, and the preface by Benjamin Hoadly to Clarke's Works (4 vols., London, 1738-1742). See further on his general philosophical position J Hunt's Religious Thought in England, passim, but particularly in vol. ii. 447-457, and vol. iii. 20-29 and 109-115, &c.; Rob. Ziinmermann in the Denkschriften d. k. Akademie der Wissenschaften, Phil. Hist. Classe, Bd. xix. (Vienna, 1870); H Sidgwick's Methods of Ethics (6th ed., 1901), p. 384; A Bain's Moral Science (1872), p. 562 foIl., and Mental Science (1872), p. 416; Sir L Stephen's English Thought in the Eighteenth Century (3rd ed., 1902), c. iii.; JE le Rossignol, Ethical Philosophy of S. Clarke (Leipzig, 1892). Sir Leslie Stephen (November 28, 1832 – February 22, 1904) was an English author and critic, the father of two famous daughters, Virginia Woolf and Vanessa Bell. ...

External links

• Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry
• A fairly readable version of the correspondence with Leibniz

This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain. Encyclopædia Britannica, the 11th edition The Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition (1910–1911) is perhaps the most famous edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica. ... The public domain comprises the body of all creative works and other knowledge—writing, artwork, music, science, inventions, and others—in which no person or organization has any proprietary interest. ...