William Paley

William Paley (Peterborough, 1743 – 1805) was a British philosopher, theologian and apologist whose work sits at the close of the English Enlightenment. He is remembered above all for his utilitarian ethics, set out in The Principles of Moral and Political Philosophy, and for his arguments for the existence of God, especially the watchmaker analogy: just as a watch points to a watchmaker, the order of the world points to a designer.

He was educated at Giggleswick School, where his father ran the school for half a century, and then at Christ's College, Cambridge, graduating in 1763 as senior wrangler. He became a fellow and college tutor, and his lectures on moral philosophy, drawing on Samuel Clarke, Joseph Butler and John Locke, formed the basis of the Principles, published in 1785 with a section on political philosophy added at the insistence of his friend Edmund Law. The book was soon used in Cambridge examinations. Paley judged an action by the general tendency of the rule it followed: a practice is right if, practised generally, it promotes the happiness of society. For him that happiness fitted with the will of God, so morality and natural theology supported each other. His utilitarianism sat alongside an acceptance of existing property arrangements and a defence of the death penalty as a deterrent.

He held church posts at Musgrave, Dalston and Carlisle, and later at Bishopwearmouth, London and Lincoln. He then published Horae Paulinae (1790), which compared Paul's letters with the Acts of the Apostles, and A View of the Evidences of Christianity (1794). His best-known work, Natural Theology (1802), develops the watchmaker analogy through examples from anatomy, natural history and astronomy.

His influence was considerable in his own time. The Principles were cited in parliamentary debates, and Charles Darwin, as an undergraduate at Cambridge, read Natural Theology with particular interest. Later science undermined his argument, yet the watchmaker analogy remains a live topic in the philosophy of religion and is still invoked by supporters of intelligent design.