1. William Paley was an English Anglican clergyman, Christian apologist, philosopher, and utilitarian.
21 Facts About William Paley
1. 2.
William Paley is best known for his natural theology exposition of the teleological argument for the existence of God in his 1802 work Natural Theology or Evidences of the Existence and Attributes of the Deity, which made use of the watchmaker analogy.
3.
William Paley graduated in 1763 as senior wrangler, became fellow in 1766, and in 1768 tutor of his college.
4.
William Paley lectured on Samuel Clarke, Joseph Butler and John Locke in his systematic course on moral philosophy, which subsequently formed the basis of his Principles of Moral and Political Philosophy; and on the New Testament, his own copy of which is in the British Library.
5.
The subscription controversy was then agitating the university, and Paley pushed an anonymous defence of 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 sign the petition for a relaxation of the terms of subscription to the Articles.
6.
William Paley was a strong supporter of the American colonies during the revolutionary war, partly because he thought it would lead to the destruction of slavery.
7.
In 1776 William Paley was presented to the rectory of Musgrave in Westmorland, which was exchanged soon after for Appleby.
8.
William Paley was made vicar of Dalston in 1780, near the bishop's palace at Rose Castle.
9.
William Paley was intimate with the Law family throughout his life, and the Bishop and his son John Law were instrumental during the decade after he left Cambridge in pressing him to publish his revised lectures and in negotiating with the publisher.
10.
In 1782 Edmund Law, otherwise the mildest of men, was most particular that William Paley should add a book on political philosophy to the moral philosophy, which William Paley was reluctant to write.
11.
William Paley strenuously supported the abolition of the slave trade, and his attack on slavery in the book was instrumental in drawing greater public attention to the practice.
12.
William Paley died on 25 May 1805 and is buried in Carlisle Cathedral with his two wives.
13.
William Paley is remembered for his contributions to the philosophy of religion, utilitarian ethics and Christian apologetics.
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William Paley's argument is built mainly around anatomy and natural history.
15.
In making his argument, William Paley employed a wide variety of metaphors and analogies.
16.
Since William Paley is often read in university courses that address the philosophy of religion, the timing of his design argument has sometimes perplexed modern philosophers.
17.
William Paley's works were more influential than Hume's from the 1800s to the 1840s.
18.
William Paley's views influenced theologians, philosophers and scientists, then and since.
19.
Today, William Paley's name evokes both reverence and revulsion and his work is cited accordingly by authors seeking to frame their own views of design.
20.
Today, as in his own time, William Paley is a controversial figure, a lightning rod for both sides in the contemporary argument between creationism and evolutionary biology.
21.
William Paley's writings reflect the thought of his time, but as Dawkins observed, his was a strong and logical approach to evidence, whether human or natural.