Table Of ContentEthical Rationalism
and Secularisation in the
British Enlightenment
Conscience and
the Age of Reason
Dafydd Mills Daniel
Ethical Rationalism and Secularisation in the
British Enlightenment
“A complex re-interpretation and resuscitation of Samuel Clarke’s ethics that
seeks to distinguish him and the ‘Clarkeans’ from other Enlightenment rational-
ists and establish his thought as a viable alternative to what Daniel and many
others see as the flawed legacy of the Enlightenment’s ‘thin’, complacent ratio-
nalism in the ethical domain.”
—William J. Bulman, Associate Professor of History
and Global Studies, Lehigh University, USA
“A very welcome and masterful study of Samuel Clarke, who, despite the explo-
sion of work on seventeenth- and eighteenth-century British moral philosophy
of the past thirty years, has been badly understudied. Daniel vigorously defends
Clarke, puncturing widespread misconceptions and caricatures, and also pro-
vides a rich description and analysis of Clarke’s historical context.”
—Stephen Darwall, Andrew Downey Orrick Professor
of Philosophy, Yale University, USA
“An insightful, ambitious, and highly interesting work. It offers a reading of
Samuel Clarke’s ethical rationalism which rescues it from The Enlightenment’s
secular legacy, makes explicit its religious commitments, and reconfigures the
central notions of reason and conscience. An important resource for moral phi-
losophy and moral theology, and for contemporary discussions of the limits of
reason and nature.”
—Fiona Ellis, Director of the Centre for Philosophy of Religion,
University of Roehampton, UK
“This is a brilliant re-reading of key Enlightenment discussions of the founda-
tions of morality. Focusing on ethical rationalism and the attendant concepts of
‘right reason’ and ‘conscience’, it offers perceptive new insights into the secular-
ization of moral discourse. This is an important text not only for historians of
moral philosophy, but also for those interested in contemporary versions of ethi-
cal realism.”
—Peter Harrison, Director of the Institute for Advanced Studies in the
Humanities, University of Queensland, Australia
“This valuable study deftly rescues Samuel Clarke, and the British tradition of
ethical rationalism that grew up around him, from the sharply dismissive judg-
ments so often rendered against them. Far from naively asserting the self-evidence
of moral truths, Mills Daniel shows how Clarkean conscience serves as the site for
active practical reasoning that draws critically on one’s own experiences, the opin-
ions of others, moral theories, and traditional authorities. In transforming
received understandings of ethical rationalism, Mills Daniel also skillfully dem-
onstrates how proto-Kantian readings of Butler go awry; both Butler and the
Clarkeans stand in a shared tradition of ‘recta ratio’ as reasoning to the law of
reason that is simultaneously the law of human nature, the law of God, and the
law of the universe. An important contribution to the history of modern moral
thought.”
—Jennifer A. Herdt, Gilbert L. Stark Professor of Christian Ethics,
Yale University Divinity School, USA
“At the beginning of the eighteenth century, British scholars, philosophers, and
clergy were engaged in a complex debate about reason, sense experience, moral
knowledge, and the authority of conscience. In an expert balancing of intellec-
tual history and ethical theory, Dafydd Mills Daniel guides us through this dis-
cussion, helping us see what was at stake for the participants and connecting
their concerns with the problems of ethical realism in a secular age. In these
pages, we encounter the classic form of questions we are still trying to answer.”
—Robin W. Lovin, Cary Maguire University Professor of Ethics Emeritus,
Southern Methodist University, USA
Dafydd Mills Daniel
Ethical Rationalism
and Secularisation
in the British
Enlightenment
Conscience and the Age of Reason
Dafydd Mills Daniel
Oxford, UK
ISBN 978-3-030-52202-5 ISBN 978-3-030-52203-2 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-52203-2
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To Mum and Dad
Acknowledgments
This book is dedicated to my parents, David and Jennifer, in thanks for
their inexhaustible love and support. It would not have been possible to
complete this book, or the doctoral thesis on which parts of it are based,
without their help and encouragement—and the wider enthusiasm for
what John Locke called ‘Thoughts, Reasonings, and Discourses’ that they
instilled in me, and my brother, Edmund, and sister, Megan. I know that
I am incredibly lucky to have such parents and siblings, and am most
grateful to each of them for all they continue to do for me, in this and
every other endeavour, with deepest love and thanks.
I am also incredibly glad to have the opportunity to acknowledge my
indebtedness to Nigel Biggar, Margaret Farley, and Peter Harrison.
Margaret, Nigel, and Peter have been an invaluable resource for encour-
agement, guidance, and wisdom, personally and professionally, over more
than a decade—it is no exaggeration to say that I would not have discov-
ered, or had the opportunity to work in, the fields of ethics and intellec-
tual history without them.
As parts of this book develop my Oxford DPhil thesis, I would like to
thank my supervisors, Nigel and Peter. Completing the book itself over
the last couple of years, while lecturing at Oxford, has been no mean
task—and without friends and colleagues in the Faculty of Theology and
Religion, Jesus College, and Harris Manchester College, it would have
seemed far too Heraclean. Special mention here must be made of Joseph
vii
viii Acknowledgments
Cunningham and Michael Oliver, whose friendship has provided both
welcome distractions from writing and encouragement for it. As office-
neighbours, Mike and I have traversed a lot across three years teaching
together at Oxford—and through all that, he was still able to remind
each day that progress however small, and wherever possible, is still
progress.
Of course, a book like this, which incorporates some doctoral work,
makes one think of the friendships formed and kept over the years, which
are a source of much joy and comfort—particularly in current times. As
well as Joe and Mike, it is not possible to leave unmentioned, James
Benford, Ben Clark, Alex Dowding, Molly Dunn, Ricardo Engel, Simon
Fairclough, Ben Franz, Fiona Harris, Ana Harvey, Tristan Scott Harvey,
Francesca Holloway, Graeme Johnstone, Chloé Joyeux, Will Kay, Ken
Nodland, Cristina Mendonça, Eleanor Mitchell, Katie Moore.
I thank The Journal of Religion and the University of Chicago Press for
permission to use as Chap. 4 a pre-publication version of my arti-
cle accepted for publication by them on 11.04.2019: ‘Modern Infidels,
Conscientious Fools, and the Douglas Affair: The Orthodox Rhetoric of
Conscience in the Scottish Enlightenment’ ©2020 by The University of
Chicago https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.1086/708939.
Contents
1 The Enlightenment’s Legacy 1
1.1 I ntroduction 1
Part 1 1
1.2 L ord Shaftesbury, William Blake, and ‘The New
Natural Philosophy’ 3
1.3 J ohn Locke, Thomas Hobbes, and Reason 8
1.4 C ontemporary Criticisms of Enlightenment Rationalism 15
1.5 N aturalisation, Subjectivism, and Privatisation 24
Part 2 26
1.6 C larkean Ethical Rationalism in the British
Enlightenment 26
1.7 M athematics and Morals 34
1.8 S ecularisation, Liberalism, and Totalitarianism 37
1.9 R eason and Conscience in Context: The Anglican
Tradition of Ciceronian Right Reason and Thomistic
Natural Law 41
1.10 C onclusion 70
ix
x Contents
2 Conscience, Normativity, and Rational Intuition 73
2.1 I ntroduction 73
Part 1 76
2.2 C riticisms of Clarkean Ethical Rationalism: Francis
Hutcheson and David Hume 76
2.3 C ontemporary Humean and Kantian Criticisms 87
Part 2 94
2.4 Th e That and the What of Intrinsic Rightness 94
2.5 ‘ Enlarged’ ‘Conscientious Right Reason’: Richard
Hooker, Benjamin Whichcote, and the Clarkeans 100
2.6 D uty to God: God’s Being and Will 106
2.7 D uty to Others: Equity and Benevolence 113
2.8 D uty to Self: ‘Self-approbation’, ‘Self-condemnation’,
and the Law of Conscience 118
2.9 Th e Richness of Clarkean Reason and Perception 123
2.10 C onclusion 126
3 Conscience or Complacency? Neo-Kantianism, Deism,
and Practical Reason 131
3.1 I ntroduction 131
Part 1 138
3.2 Passive Perception, Active Consciousness, and Freewill 138
3.3 ‘ Moral Certainty’ and the Limits of Human Reason 141
3.4 P ractical Moral Reasoning 144
Part 2 148
3.5 ‘ Original’ Materials of Conscience: ‘Light of Nature’,
‘Law of Nature’, and ‘Practical Virtue’ 148
3.6 I ntending Rectitude: Matthew Tindal and Francis
Hutcheson 156
3.7 ‘ Virtuous Act’/‘Virtuous Agent’: Acting According to
Conscience versus An Act of Conscience 158
3.8 F allenness and the ‘State of Trial’ 159
Part 3 161
3.9 ‘ Additional’ Materials of Conscience: Self-Love and
Benevolence 161
