Naturalism and the Ancient Moralists

Joseph Butler (1692–1752) was not a prolific writer. His major work in moral philosophy, the Fifteen Sermons Preached at the Rolls Chapel, is always terse and often cryptic. He has been described as “the most sagacious, if not the most consistent or systematic, of the British Moralists.” But one systematic element in his moral outlook is his appeal to nature, and this element reasonably invites a comparison with Stoicism.

Butler's sermons are intended “to explain what is meant by the nature of man, when it is said that virtue consists in following, and vice in deviating from it, and by explaining to show that the assertion is true” (P 13). He says that this claim about nature is the view of the ancient moralists, but not the unanimous view of modern moralists. Some people simply reject it, while others regard it as trivial and useless, even if it is true (P 13).

He attributes the naturalist formula to “the ancient moralists” indiscriminately.

In the comparative expression “more contrary to this nature,” Butler suggests that torture and death are to some degree contrary to nature.