Formation of Butler’s Moral Theology as a Foundation of Commercial Society

Naoki Yajima ()
Additional contact information
Naoki Yajima: International Christian University

Chapter Chapter 3 in Joseph Butler, 2024, pp 25-40 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract This chapter[aut]Yajima, Naoki primarilyCommercial society focuses on the Butler–Clark Letters, which influenced Butler’s early thought. This correspondence helped establish Butler’s criticism of Clarke’s claims regarding the omnipresenceOmnipresence of God as proof and the necessityNecessity of God’s existence. The omnipresenceOmnipresence of God is the subject of space and duration theory, whereas the necessary existence of God is the subject of causal theory. Butler criticized Clarke’s argument surrounding space/duration and offered the possibility of treating causality as human experience. He also criticized Clarke’s argument regarding God’s existence, thereby turning an understanding of the subject based on metaphysical necessityNecessity into a matter of probable belief. These arguments culminated in Butler’s late empiricist moral theory and the theory of religion and ideas that prepared the empiricist moral theory of Hume and other Scottish EnlightenmentEnlightenment thinkers. This chapter thus sheds light on how concepts such as necessityNecessity, probabilityProbability and conceivabilityConceivability, used in Butler’s critique of Clarke, are the foundational concepts of empirical moral theory and modern commercial societyCommercial society.

Date: 2024
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:sprchp:978-981-99-9903-3_3

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/9789819999033

DOI: 10.1007/978-981-99-9903-3_3

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Springer Books from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().