Сэмюэль Кларк: Англиялық философ және дін қызметкері

English philosopher and cleric (1675–1729)

Samuel Clarke (11 October 1675 – 17 May 1729) was an English philosopher and Anglican cleric. He is considered the major British figure in philosophy between John Locke and George Berkeley. Clarke's altered, Nontrinitarian revision of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer continues to influence worship among modern Unitarians.

Clarke was born in Norwich, the son of Edward Clarke, an alderman of Norwich and Member of Parliament, and brother of John Clarke. He was educated at Norwich School and Caius College, Cambridge. His tutor at Caius was John Ellis, a personal friend of Isaac Newton, but who in natural philosophy taught in line with the Cartesianism that prevailed in the university. Clarke, however, came to adopt the new physical system of Newton; he used the vehicle of an annotated translation of a work on physics in the Cartesian tradition to comment on the superiority of the Newtonian system. This textbook was published in 1697, and in the same year Clarke met the Newtonian William Whiston. It was a chance encounter in Norwich, but Whiston was then chaplain to John Moore, bishop of Norwich. Having taken holy orders, Clarke became chaplain to Moore in Whiston's place, and was presented by Moore to the rectory of Drayton, Norfolk. In 1706, through the influence of Moore, Clarke obtained the rectory of St Benet Paul's Wharf, London. Soon afterwards Queen Anne appointed him one of her chaplains in ordinary, and in 1709 presented him to the rectory of St James's, Westminster. His church brought Clarke into personal contact with Newton. He dealt in 1704 with the Being and Attributes of God, an example of a physico theological system; and in 1705 with the Evidences of Natural and Revealed Religion. These books were later published together. Clarke's reputation rested largely on his effort to demonstrate the existence of God, and his theory of the foundation of rectitude. The former is not a purely a priori argument, and it was not presented as such. The intelligence, for example, of the self existence and original cause of all things is, he says, "not easily proved a priori," but "demonstrably proved a posteriori from the variety and degrees of perfection in things, and the order of causes and effects, from the intelligence that created beings are confessedly endowed with, and from the beauty, order, and final purpose of things." Edmund Law and other writers represented Clarke as arguing from the existence of time and space to the existence of Deity. The debate arose from a controversy of 1706 on the immortality of the soul. Clarke published a refutation of the views of Henry Dodwell, and this drew in Collins, who wrote a Letter to Mr Dodwell in his defence. By the sixth edition (1731), Clarke's own Letter to Mr Dodwell of 1706 had grown to 475 pages, including the replies of Collins. Clarke's main argument against Dodwell was that the soul, being immaterial, must be immortal. John Norris argued differently, though on Clarke's side of the debate, using in particular the ideas of Malebranche. Collins challenged Clarke on the ground of his substance dualism.

Clarke studied scripture in the original languages, and the primitive Christian writers. He took the degree of doctor in divinity in 1710,

During 1712 Clarke published his treatise on The Scripture Doctrine of the Trinity. It is divided into three parts. The first contains a collection and exegesis of texts in the New Testament relating to the doctrine of the Trinity; in the second the doctrine is set out, and explained as a set of propositions; and in the third passages in the liturgy of the Church of England relating to the doctrine of the Trinity are considered. At the time they were certainly denounced as Arianism; they belonged, as did Newton's, to the type of antitrinitarianism later called "High Arianism". Clarke's position was subordinationist, and less radical than Newton's and typical English Unitarians of his time. He looked at 1251 biblical texts, and rejected the added phrase known as the Johannine Comma. He made a more careful case than Whiston.

The controversy within the Church of England to which Clarke was a major contributor had been initiated by George Bull, with his publication in 1685 of views on the opinions of the Church Fathers before the First Council of Nicaea (325 AD). He was reacting to issues that had been raised elsewhere in Europe, by Petavius, by Christopher Sandius and Daniel Zwicker for the Socinian camp, and the Arminians. It was only with the close discussions of Clarke and his major opponent Daniel Waterland, a generation later, that the theological and historical points involved came clearly into focus. Clarke and Waterland had definite differences on the theology of consubstantiality and aseity. Waterland argued in theology for the Anglican orthodoxy of time, in particular that the possible attitudes were, besides the orthodox Athanasian view, limited to Arianism and Sabellianism; and that the two latter were not consistent with Scripture. He also championed Bull's historical claim, that the Fathers before Nicaea held the views that were orthodox after Nicaea. Clarke's resistance to both points has had support from some modern scholars. The trajectory of the English controversy from 1712 involved at least ten writers. Arthur Ashley Sykes and John Jackson from then on acted as his proxies. Richard Mayo of Great Kimble (son of the nonconformist Richard Mayo), Stephen Nye, Edward Welchman and Edward Wells.

By 1724, Clarke had been pressured to public retract his Nontrinitarian views. However, he maintained these beliefs in private. That year, Clarke privately altered his copy of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer, deleting Trinitarian formulae and the Athanasian Creed. The work went unpublished, though copies were made and his son later donated the original manuscript to the British Library. Theophilus Lindsey eventually encountered a copy in the possession of John Disney. Lindsey, using Clarke's work as his basis, published his own Unitarian prayer book revision in 1774 and began using it with his Essex Street Chapel congregation. In 1785, Lindsey's work was further adapted by James Freeman for use at King's Chapel in Boston, where a ninth edition version is still used.

In 1719 Clarke was presented by Nicholas Lechmere, 1st Baron Lechmere, to the mastership of Wigston's hospital in Leicester. In 1727, on the death of Sir Isaac Newton, he was offered by the court the post of Master of the Mint, worth on an average from £1200 to £1500 a year. He refused the position.

Clarke published a Latin version of the Traité de physique of Jacques Rohault (1617(?) 1672) with notes, which he finished before he was twenty two. The system of Rohault was based on Cartesian principles, and was previously known only through the medium of a crude Latin version. Clarke's translation (1697) continued to be used as a text book in the university till supplanted by the treatises of Newton. Four editions were issued, the last being that of 1718. It was translated into English in 1723 by his younger brother John, dean of Salisbury. He left notes on the Book of Common Prayer. These became the source of Theophilus Lindsey's The Book of Common Prayer Reformed According to the Plan of the Late Dr. Samuel Clarke 1774, and other liturgical works.

Clarke married his first cousin Katherine Lockwood (d. 1753), daughter of the Rev. Mr. Lockwood of Little Massingham, Norfolk and Katherine Clarke in St Margaret's Church, Burnham Norton, Norfolk on 17 October 1700. They had seven children, of whom five survived him; Clarke's surviving son Samuel Clarke (b. 1710) died without issue sometime in 1778. His will was proved by his cousin Frances Clarke, one of the daughters of his uncle John Clarke on 13 May 1778.

A Demonstration of the Being and Attributes of God: and Other Writings, edited by Ezio Vailati, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998. G. W. Leibniz and Samuel Clarke. Correspondence, edited by Roger Ariew, Indianapolis: Hackett, 2000.