PHILOSOPHER

William Paley

1743 - 1805

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William Paley (July 1743 – 25 May 1805) was an English Anglican clergyman, Christian apologist, philosopher, and utilitarian. He is best known for his natural theology exposition of the teleological argument for the existence of God in his 1802 work Natural Theology or Evidences of the Existence and Attributes of the Deity, which made use of the watchmaker analogy. Read more on Wikipedia

His biography is available in different languages on Wikipedia. William Paley is the 767th most popular philosopher (up from 863rd in 2019), the 1,974th most popular biography from United Kingdom (up from 2,056th in 2019) and the 53rd most popular British Philosopher.

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Among PHILOSOPHERS

Among philosophers, William Paley ranks 767 out of 1,267. Before him are Daisaku Ikeda, Thiruvalluvar, Luigi Guido Grandi, F. H. Bradley, Kitaro Nishida, and Alcidamas. After him are Zhang Zai, Hermarchus, Denis de Rougemont, Calcidius, Lucien Goldmann, and Helmuth Plessner.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1743, William Paley ranks 24. Before him are Edmund Cartwright, William I, Elector of Hesse, Louis Claude de Saint-Martin, Princess Carolina of Orange-Nassau, Victor Amadeus II, Prince of Carignano, and Yekaterina Vorontsova-Dashkova. After him are Johann Friedrich Wilhelm Herbst, Eberhard August Wilhelm von Zimmermann, Anna Laetitia Barbauld, Johannes Ewald, Giuseppe Gazzaniga, and Elisabeth Christina von Linné. Among people deceased in 1805, William Paley ranks 16. Before him are Frederica Louisa of Hesse-Darmstadt, Frederick, Hereditary Prince of Denmark, Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess Cornwallis, Mihrişah Sultan, Josephus Nicolaus Laurenti, and Abraham Hyacinthe Anquetil-Duperron. After him are Pehr Osbeck, William Petty, 2nd Earl of Shelburne, Louis-Jean-François Lagrenée, Nicolas-Jacques Conté, Franz Xaver von Wulfen, and John Robison.

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In United Kingdom

Among people born in United Kingdom, William Paley ranks 1,974 out of 8,785. Before him are Mary Putnam Jacobi (1842), F. H. Bradley (1846), Sam Mendes (1965), Matt Ridley (1958), Kenneth E. Boulding (1910), and Princess Helena Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein (1870). After him are Tom Conti (1941), John Rimmer (1878), Kate Moss (1974), Sam Smith (1992), Peter Barlow (1776), and William Cavendish-Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland (1738).

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Among PHILOSOPHERS In United Kingdom

Among philosophers born in United Kingdom, William Paley ranks 53. Before him are P. F. Strawson (1919), Henry More (1614), Stephen Toulmin (1922), Mark Fisher (1968), Robert Filmer (1588), and F. H. Bradley (1846). After him are Anthony Collins (1676), Philippa Foot (1920), Bernard Williams (1929), John Major (1467), Charles Kay Ogden (1889), and Frederick Copleston (1907).

British born Philosophers

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