William Paley 1743 – 1805

William Paley was an English Anglican clergyman, philosopher of religion, and moral philosopher and for half a century one of the most read writers in British religious thought. Long-time fellow and tutor of Christ's College, Cambridge, he held a succession of clerical livings and finally the archdeaconry of Carlisle. His Principles of Moral and Political Philosophy, A View of the Evidences of Christianity, and Natural Theology became standard textbooks at Cambridge and Oxford and presented a celebrated argument from design centered on the analogy of finding a watch upon a heath. His combination of utilitarian ethics with natural theology shaped Anglo-American thought well into the nineteenth century.