William Paley

William Paley was an English Anglican clergyman, philosopher, abolitionist and utilitarian, born in Peterborough, Northamptonshire, in July 1743 and dead on 25 May 1805. He was educated at Giggleswick School and at Christ's College, Cambridge, where he graduated in 1763 as senior wrangler and became a fellow in 1766. He rose through the Church as rector, vicar and Archdeacon of Carlisle, and he strenuously supported the abolition of the slave trade. His Principles of Moral and Political Philosophy of 1785 was one of the most influential philosophical texts in late Enlightenment Britain. He is best known for the 1802 Natural Theology, or Evidences of the Existence and Attributes of the Deity, an exposition of the teleological argument for the existence of God that made use of the watchmaker analogy, and his critics at times called him a Christian apologist.