Historical Apologist: Joseph Butler

Joseph Butler (1692-1752) was an Anglican Bishop who made important contributions to both theology and philosophy. Butler's Analogy of Religion was well known in the eighteenth century for its defense of orthodox Christianity over against deism. Butler made many acute contributions to moral philosophy, including a celebrated critique of hedonism, in which he argued that pleasure is not generally the direct object of desire but rather is a byproduct of other things that humans desire.1

1. C.Stephen Evans, Pocket Dictionary of Apologetics & Philosophy of Religion (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2002), p. 19.