SAMUEL CLARKE

DASSIER, Jean: England, ca.1733, Bronze, 43 mm
Obv: Bust of Clark    SAMUEL CLARKE.
Rev: A student ascending a rocky path to the top of a mountain toward Truth pointing toward the radiated name of Jehovah, in Hebrew    QUO VERITAS VOCAT. (Where Truth Calls)
Signed:  J. DASSIER. F.
From Jean Dassier's Series, The British Worthies.
Ref: M.I. ii, 490/31; Eimer 78/518; Eisler I, 287/10b; Thompson 43/08;  Weiss BW051

Dr. Samuel Clarke (1675-1729) was a theologian, mathematician and philosopher. He was educated at Caius college, Cambridge, where the philosophy of Descartes was the reigning system. Clarke, however, mastered the new system of Isaac Newton, whose views he helped spread. He chose to ground his opinions upon the result of his own researches, and, entering deeply into the study of religion and natural philosophy, to proceed in the path in which, he thought, the Truth called him to walk. In a lecture, published as A Demonstration of the Being and Attributes of God, Clarke attempted to prove the existence of God by a method "as near to mathematical as the nature of such a discourse would allow". In another on A Discourse Concerning the Unchangeable Obligation of Natural Religion, he argued that the principles of morality are as certain as the propositions of mathematics and thus can be known by reason unassisted by faith. These and similar views spurred vehement controversy among his fellow theologians. (Eisler)

LINK to Biography of Samuel Clark (from Wikipedia)

HOME PAGE