Clarke, Samuel(1675–1729)
Samuel Clarke, the most important British philosopher and theologian of his generation, was born in Norwich, England, on October 11, 1675. He took his BA degree at Cambridge in 1695, defending Isaac Newton's views. In 1697 he provided a new annotated Latin translation of Jacques Rohault's Treatise of Physics, and in his notes criticized René Descartes's physics in favor of Newton's. In that same year he was introduced into the Newtonian circle, probably by William Whiston (1667–1752), whom he had befriended. In 1704 he delivered his first set of Boyle Lectures, A Demonstration of the Being and Attributes of God: More Particularly in Answer to Mr. Hobbes, Spinoza, and Their Followers. They were so successful that he was asked to deliver the 1705 lectures as well under the title A Discourse concerning the Unchangeable Obligations of Natural Religion and the Truth and Certainty of Christian Revelation. His connection with Newton became official in 1706, when he translated the Opticks into Latin. In the same year Anthony Collins, a materialist follower of John Locke's, engaged Clarke in a long and famous exchange on whether matter can think.
After becoming one of Queen Anne's (1665–1714) chaplains, Clarke was elevated in 1709 to the rectory of St.
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