Geburtsdatum | Sonntag, 18. Mai 1692 |
Geburtsort | Wantage, Berkshire, England |
Todesort | Bath,_Somerset |
Sternzeichen | |
Beschreibung | Joseph Butler (18. Mai 1692 - 16. Juni 1752) war ein englischer anglikanischer Bischof, Theologe, Apologet und Philosoph, geboren in Wantage in der englischen Grafschaft Berkshire (heute in Oxfordshire). Er ist bekannt für seine Kritik des Deismus, des Egoismus von Thomas Hobbes und der Theorie der persönlichen Identität von John Locke. Zu den vielen Philosophen und religiösen Denkern, die Butler beeinflusste, gehörten David Hume, Thomas Reid, Adam Smith, Henry Sidgwick, John Henry Newman und C. D. Broad, und er gilt weithin als "einer der herausragenden englischen Moralisten". Er spielte eine wichtige, wenn auch unterschätzte Rolle bei der Entwicklung des wirtschaftlichen Diskurses im 18. Jahrhundert und beeinflusste den Dekan von Gloucester und den politischen Ökonomen Josiah Tucker. |
The principle we call self-love never seeks anything external for the sake of the thing, but only as a means of happiness or good: particular affections rest in the external things themselves.
Happiness does not consist in self-love.
The sum of the whole is plainly this: The nature of man considered in his single capacity, and with respect only to the present world, is adapted and leads him to attain the greatest happiness he can for himself in the present world.
The private interest of the individual would not be sufficiently provided for by reasonable and cool self-love alone therefore the appetites and passions are placed within as a guard and further security, without which it would not be taken due care of.
Every man hath a general desire of his own happiness and likewise a variety of particular affections, passions, and appetites to particular external objects.
Happiness or satisfaction consists only in the enjoyment of those objects which are by nature suited to our several particular appetites, passions, and affections.
Compassion is a call, a demand of nature, to relieve the unhappy as hunger is a natural call for food.
