British theologian and moral philosopher. Paley studied mathematics at Christ’s College, Cambridge, in 1759, was elected a fellow of his college in 1766, and ordained an Anglican priest the following year. Paley taught at Cambridge for nine years, until his marriage, and rose in the church to be the Archbishop of Carlisle. Paley authored three books, all of which were widely read and accepted as textbooks. His Principles of Moral and Political Philosophy (1785) is more a description of duties and obligations than it is a philosophical treatise. To Paley, the will of God is for mankind to find everlasting happiness; thus one should carry out actions that promote general happiness and avoid those that diminish it. God’s will can be found either in the scriptures or in “the light of nature,” both of which lead to the same conclusion. Paley’s Principles contains his famous satire on private property, in which he describes the effects of private property on the social order of a flock of pigeons for which he earned the nickname “Pigeon Paley.”
Paley’s other two books defend Christian belief. In A View of the Evidences of Christianity (two volumes, 1794), he argues that the miracles recorded in the scriptures are genuine, proven by the steadfastness of the early Christians who bore witness to miraculous events in spite of risks to comfort, happiness, and life. The book is essentially an apologetic essay, its thesis resting on the reliability of historical witnesses who reported on events that necessarily only they could have experienced. Nevertheless, it was a huge success, and following its publication Paley was made a prebendary of St. Pancras in the Cathedral of St. Paul’s and the subdean of Tincoln.