Samuel Clarke

Samuel Clarke (1675–1729), English philosopher and theologian.

Samuel Clarke (born October 11, 1675 in Norwich , † May 17, 1729 in London ) was an English philosopher and theologian in the early Enlightenment period .

life and work

Clarke was a close confidante and student of Isaac Newton . From 1691 he devoted himself to philosophical, theological and philological studies in Cambridge, where he obtained his BA at Caius and Gonville College in 1695, became chaplain to the Bishop of Norwich in 1698 and from Queen Anne in 1706 . He was called in 1704 and 1705 to hold lectures sponsored by Robert Boyle . These appeared under the titles Demonstration of the being and attributes of God (London 1705–1706, two volumes) and Verity and certificate of natural and revealed religion (London 1705).

As in these two works a new justification of natural theology or religion of reason as a Christian "philosophy of liberty" against deterministic pantheism and atheism , so he tried in his third major work Discourse concerning the unchangeable obligation of natural religion (London 1708 ) one of natural morality. In order to defeat Spinoza and Thomas Hobbes , whom he regarded as his main opponents, with their own weapons, he made use of the mathematical demonstration as the most independent of the influence of arbitrariness. In order to formulate generally valid moral principles vis-à-vis the moral skeptics like Pierre Bayle and Michel de Montaigne , he relied on the involuntary (willless) judgment of reason about suitability (fitness) and unsuitability (unfitness) based on the golden rule .

Through the first two works he became the head of the rationalist current in English theology, through the third the forerunner of the English (and Scottish) moralist school based on the pronouncement of reason as an inner sense of the good and the beautiful.

Since he justified the thesis that the Bible contained nothing contradicting reason, the Orthodox Anglican clergy immediately suspected him of heresy and, as a result of his book The scripture doctrine of the trinity (London 1712, 1719), which was supposedly Arian in color , was taken from the Number of royal cabinet chaplains deleted.

In 1697 he translated the physics textbook (Traité de Physique) of Descartes' follower Jacques Rohault into Latin, with annotations in which he presented Newton's point of view. The book was widely used in England as a physics textbook and was translated into English by John Clarke in 1723. In 1706 he translated Newton's optics into Latin.

He is best known for his unfinished argument with Leibniz , in which Clarke defended his philosophy and that of Isaac Newton against objections by Leibniz, against Leibniz's determinism and against the suspicion of atheism that Leibniz had raised against Newton. Clarke published the correspondence under the title A collection of papers, which passed between Leibniz and Clarke… (first London 1717; French: Amsterdam 1719 and 1740; German: Frankfurt am Main 1720). Clarke died in London on May 17, 1729.

An edition of the philosophical works of this early enlightener appeared in London from 1738 to 1742 in four volumes. His autographs are kept in the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Library , among others .

Fonts

Samuel Clarke: The correspondence with GW Leibniz from 1715/1716. Translated and with an introductory, explanatory note and an appendix ed. by Ed Dellian. Meiner, Hamburg 1990, ISBN 978-3-7873-0947-4 . (Philosophical Library, 423.)
Samuel Clarke: A demonstration of the being and attributes of God and other writings. Edited by Ezio Vailati. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1998, ISBN 0-521-59008-6 . (Cambridge texts in the history of philosophy.)

literature

Robert von Zimmermann : Samuel Clarke's life and teaching. Vienna 1870.
The Leibniz-Clarke-Correspondence together with extracts from Newton's Principia and Optiks Ed. HG Alexander. Manchester University Press 1956, ISBN 0-7190-0669-4 .
Samuel Clarke: The correspondence with GW Leibniz from 1715/1716, Ed Dellian. Felix Meiner Verlag, Hamburg 1990, ISBN 3-7873-0947-0 (Philosophical Library No. 423).
The Leibniz-Clarke Correspondence Ed. Volkmar Schüller. Academy, Berlin 1991, ISBN 3-05-000952-7 . (Philosophy-historical texts.)
Friedrich Wilhelm Bautz : Clarke, Samuel. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 1, Bautz, Hamm 1975. 2nd, unchanged edition Hamm 1990, ISBN 3-88309-013-1 , Sp. 1030. ( Article / beginning of article in the Internet archive )
C. Schöll: Clarke, Samuel . In: Realencyklopadie for Protestant Theology and Church (RE). 3. Edition. Volume 4, Hinrichs, Leipzig 1898, pp. 129-131.
Ulrich J. Ortner: Samuel Clarke's doctrine of the Trinity. A research contribution on the theology of the early English Enlightenment , Frankfurt am Main 1996, ISBN 3-631-30329-7 .
Enzio Vailati: Leibniz and Clarke. A study of their correspondence , Oxford University Press 1997

Individual evidence

↑ see literature: The Leibniz-Clarke letter exchange. Edited by Volkmar Schüller. 1991, afterword p. 441 - or the more detailed account by Ed Dellian: The exchange of letters with GW Leibniz from 1715/1716. 1990, introduction p. XII
↑ Samuel Clarke himself published this (his) correspondence in 1717 (GW Leibniz died in November 1716) together with an explanatory introduction and an appendix.

Web links

Commons : Samuel Clarke - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Literature by and about Samuel Clarke in the catalog of the German National Library

personal data
SURNAME	Clarke, Samuel
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	English theologian and philosopher
DATE OF BIRTH	October 11, 1675
PLACE OF BIRTH	Norwich
DATE OF DEATH	May 17, 1729
Place of death	London

[1] see literature: The Leibniz-Clarke letter exchange. Edited by Volkmar Schüller. 1991, afterword p. 441 - or the more detailed account by Ed Dellian: The exchange of letters with GW Leibniz from 1715/1716. 1990, introduction p. XII

[2] Samuel Clarke himself published this (his) correspondence in 1717 (GW Leibniz died in November 1716) together with an explanatory introduction and an appendix.