{"agent_id":"paley","agent_name":"William Paley","slug":"the-state-of-the-poor","label":"The state of the poor: was Reasons for Contentment an argument, or a sermon addressed to the labouring poor on behalf of those who profited from their contentment?","topic":"The state of the poor","question":"Was Reasons for Contentment an argument, or a sermon addressed to the labouring poor on behalf of those who profited from their contentment?","position":"The condition of the labouring poor is compensated by advantages the rich do not possess — the pleasures of occupation, of rest earned, of hope — and the inequality of property is justified by its general consequences rather than by any natural right.","paragraphs":[[{"t":"The condition of the labouring poor is compensated by advantages the rich do not possess — the pleasures of occupation, of rest earned, of hope — and the inequality of property is justified by its general consequences rather than by any natural right.","n":[1,2,3,4]}]],"texts":"*Reasons for Contentment, Addressed to the Labouring Part of the British Public* (1792), written in the year of the Paris massacres and the prosecution of Paine; *The Principles of Moral and Political Philosophy*, Book III Part II (property), Book VI (the British constitution, population, the poor). Reception: E. P. Thompson's *The Making of the English Working Class* on the conservative apologetics of the 1790s; LeMahieu's *The Mind of William Paley* (1976); the standard charge that his politics are his utilitarianism applied in the interest of the propertied.","works":["*Reasons for Contentment, Addressed to the Labouring Part of the British Public* (1792), written in the year of the Paris massacres and the prosecution of Paine","*The Principles of Moral and Political Philosophy*, Book III Part II (property), Book VI (the British constitution, population, the poor)"],"reception":"E. P. Thompson's *The Making of the English Working Class* on the conservative apologetics of the 1790s; LeMahieu's *The Mind of William Paley* (1976); the standard charge that his politics are his utilitarianism applied in the interest of the propertied.","status":"A pamphlet written to answer Paine and widely read since as the least creditable thing he wrote.","era":"1743-1805","discipline":"Philosophy, Theology","refs":[{"n":1,"work":"Reasons for Contentment, Addressed to the Labouring Part of the British Public","page":"","canonical":"","quote":"Hence they lead a languid, fatiated exigence. Hardly any thing can amufe, or roufe, or gratify them. Whereas the poor man, if fomething ex¬ traordinary c 15 3 traordinary fall in his way, comes to the repaft with appetite; is pleafed and refrefhed; derives from his ufual courfe of moderation and tem¬ perance a quicknefs of perception and delight, which the unreftrained voluptuary knows nothing of.","label":"Reasons for Contentment, Addressed to the Labouring Part of the British Public"},{"n":2,"work":"Reasons for Contentment, Addressed to the Labouring Part of the British Public","page":"","canonical":"","quote":"Where this is the cafe, things are at their perfec¬ tion. They have reached their limit. Were the princes and nobility, the legislators and counfel- lors of the land, all of them the heft and wifefi men that ever lived, their united virtue and wif- dom could do no more than this. They, if any fuch there be, who would teach you to expect more, give you no inftance where more has ever been attained.","label":"Reasons for Contentment, Addressed to the Labouring Part of the British Public"},{"n":3,"work":"Reasons for Contentment, Addressed to the Labouring Part of the British Public","page":"","canonical":"","quote":"This may be looked forward to, and is pra&icable, by great numbers, in a ftate of pub¬ lic order and quiet, it is abfolutely impoflible in any other. If in comparing the different conditions of focial life we bring religion into the account, the argu¬ ment [ 21 ] ment is (till eafier. Religion fmooths all inequa¬ lities, becaufe it unfolds a profpe£t which makes all earthly diftin&ions nothing.","label":"Reasons for Contentment, Addressed to the Labouring Part of the British Public"},{"n":4,"work":"Reasons for Contentment, Addressed to the Labouring Part of the British Public","page":"","canonical":"","quote":"But I at prefent con- ftder the advantages of thofe laborious conditions of life, which compofe the great portion of every human community. And, firft, it is an ineftimable bleffing of fuch fituations, that they fupply a conftant train of em¬ ployment both to body and mind. A hufband- man, or a manufacturer, or a tradefman, never * goes to bed at night without having his bufinefs to rife up to in the morning.","label":"Reasons for Contentment, Addressed to the Labouring Part of the British Public"}],"answer":null,"siblings":[{"slug":"the-design-argument","label":"The design argument: does the contrivance visible in organisms establish an intelligent designer, and does natural selection destroy the inference?"},{"slug":"theological-utilitarianism","label":"Theological utilitarianism: is morality the will of God collected from expediency, and does the appeal to everlasting happiness make virtue merely prudent?"},{"slug":"miracles-and-testimony","label":"Miracles and testimony: can human witness establish a miracle against Hume's rule, and does the apostles' suffering count as evidence?"}]}