Samuel Clarke

Samuel Clarke. 1675-1729. Newton'un önce öğrencisi, sonra dostu ve savunucusu olmuş olan İngiliz filozof ve ilahiyatçı. Tanrı'nın varlığını, "matematiksel yönteme yakın" bir yöntemle kanıtlamaya çalışmış olan Clarke, ahlak ilkelerinin matematiksel önermeler kadar kesin olduğunu; bundan dolayı inancın yardımı olmadan, yalnızca akıl aracılığıyla bilinebileceklerini öne sürmüştür.Fakat bu siyasi olaydan sonra kendisi gelmiştir.The son of Edward Clarke, an alderman who represented the city of Norwich in parliament, was educated at the free school of Norwich and at Caius College, Cambridge. The philosophy of René Descartes was the reigning system at the university; Clarke, however, mastered the new system of Isaac Newton, and contributed greatly to its extension by publishing a Latin version of the Traité de physique of Jacques Rohault (1617(?)-1672) with valuable notes, which he finished before he was twenty-two. The system of Rohault was founded entirely upon 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, which it had been designed to introduce. Four editions were issued, the last and best being that of 1718. It was translated into English in 1723 by his younger brother Dr John Clarke, dean of Sarum.