Samuel butler short biography

Another feature of Erewhon is the absence of machines; this is due to the widely shared perception by the Erewhonians that they are potentially dangerous. This last aspect of Erewhon reveals the influence of Charles Darwin 's evolution theory; Butler had read The Origin of Species soon after it was published in The three chapters of Erewhon that make up "The Book of the Machines" were developed from a number of articles that Butler had contributed to a local samuel butler short biography while in New Zealand.

Butler was the first to write about the possibility that machines develop consciousness. To him it was a joke, but today scientists and philosophers are seriously debating whether computers and robots could develop the same kind of intelligence artificial intelligenceAI and consciousness artificial life as human beings. It is also a popular theme in science fiction novels and movies; some raise the same question Dune's Butlerian Jihad, for examplewhile others wonder what the relationship between human beings and machines with artificial intelligence would be and whether AI is desirable at all.

Widely shared among the people of Erewhon is the belief that children choose to be born. Many other curious notions abound in Erewhon. In the chapter, "Musical Banks," Butler compares the practice of the cathedral to that of the old practice of coinage in an attack on the religious hypocrisy of his time. In his novel, the banks have their own currency, which is not honored by the other banks.

In the old practice of coinage, during the age when the whole point of money was that it was made of precious metal, there was frequent trimming or shaving of coins once they were released to the samuel butler short biography, even though people were expected to accept the diminished coins at their face value. These bits were sold under the counter to an assayer.

There was also widespread counterfeiting. Banks of that era were few and quite magnificent, but they were circulating devalued goods that were not really as valuable as the original—an implicit critique of the Christianity of his age. It would not do for churches to be implicated in these activities. Thus, churches actually had money-changing tables at which each coin would be examined separately and a token of actual worth given to the layperson so that he or she could be seen by the other parishioners as putting money in the basket during that part of the service.

These tokens had religious images upon them; this also prevented pilferage. The money-changing was not done at the same time as the service itself. Some distinguished Protestant churches in the U. The practice goes back to the days of the Temple in Jerusalembut then it was done for the different reason—so that money offered to the temple did not have the images of pagan gods on it.

After its first release, this book sold far better than any of Butler's other works—perhaps because the British public assumed that the anonymous author was some better-known figure the favorite being Lord Lytton, who had published The Coming Race two years prior. InButler published a sequel, Erewhon Revisited, alongside a revised and expanded edition of Erewhon.

Samuel's friend, Henry Festing Jones, wrote the authoritative biography: The two-volume Samuel Butler, Author of Erewhon : A Memoir commonly known as Jones's Memoirpublished inand now only available from antiquarian booksellers. Project Gutenberg hosts a shorter "Sketch" by Jones. Streatfeild, in This version, however, altered Butler's text in many ways and cut important material.

The actual manuscript was edited by Daniel F. It is currently in print again and, of course, should be the only version read. New World Encyclopedia writers and editors rewrote and completed the Wikipedia article in accordance with New World Encyclopedia standards. This article abides by terms of the Creative Commons CC-by-sa 3. Credit is due under the terms of this license that can reference both the New World Encyclopedia contributors and the selfless volunteer contributors of the Wikimedia Foundation.

He argued, however, that "some vaster Person [may] loom And behind this vaster and more unknown God there may be yet another, and another, and another. Butler argued that each organism was not, in fact, distinct from its parents. Instead, he asserted that each being was merely an extension of its parents at a later stage of evolution. Butler accepted evolution but rejected Darwin's theory of natural selection.

Butler, though strongly anti-Darwinian that is, anti-natural selection and anti-Charles Darwin is not anti-evolutionist. He professes, indeed, to be very much of an evolutionist, and in particular one who has taken it upon his shoulders to reinstate Buffon and Erasmus Darwin, and, as a follower of these two, Lamarck, in their rightful place as the most believable explainers of the factors and method of evolution.

His evolution belief is a sort of Butlerized Lamarckism, tracing back originally to Buffon and Erasmus Darwin. Historian Peter J. Bowler has described Butler as a defender of neo-Lamarckian evolution. Bowler noted that "Butler began to see in Lamarckism the prospect of retaining an indirect form of the design argument. Instead of creating from without, God might exist within the process of living development, represented by its innate creativity.

Butler's writings on evolution were criticised by scientists. Romanes stated that Butler's views on evolution had no basis in science. Gregory Bateson often mentioned Butler and saw value in some of his ideas, calling him "the ablest contemporary critic of Darwinian evolution". He noted Butler's insight into the efficiencies of habit formation patterns of behaviour and mental processes in adapting to an environment:.

Samuel butler short biography

There were still some naughty boys, like Samuel Butler, who said that mind could not be ignored in this way — but they were weak voices, and, incidentally, they never looked at organisms. I don't think Butler ever looked at anything except his own cat, but he still knew more about evolution than some of the more conventional thinkers. In Ernest Pontifex or The Way of All Fleshprotagonist Ernest Pontifex says that he had been trying all his life to like modern music but succeeded less and less as he grew older.

On being asked when he considers modern music to have begun, he says, "with Sebastian Bach ". I would have said and things of that sort, but there are no 'things of that sort' except Handel's. Two of the works they collaborated on were the cantatas Narcissus private rehearsalpublishedand Ulysses published posthumously inboth for solo samuels butler short biography, chorus, and orchestra.

From he took counterpoint lessons with W. Butler belonged to no literary school and spawned no followers in his lifetime. He was a serious but amateur student of the subjects he undertook, especially religious orthodoxy and evolutionary thoughtand his controversial assertions effectively shut him out from both the opposing factions of church and science that played such a large role in late Victorian cultural life: "In those days one was either a religionist or a Darwinianbut he was neither.

His influence on literature, such as it was, came through The Way of All Fleshwhich Butler completed in the s, but left unpublished to protect his family, yet the novel, "begun in and not touched afterwas so modern when it was published inthat it may be said to have started a new school", particularly for its use of psychoanalysis in fiction, which "his treatment of Ernest Pontifex [the hero] foreshadows.

Sue Zemka writes that "Among science fiction writers, The Book of the Machines has a canonical status, for it originates the conceit by which machines develop intelligent capacities and enslave mankind. Contents move to sidebar hide. Article Talk. Read Edit View history. Tools Tools. Download as PDF Printable version. In other projects.

Wikimedia Commons Wikiquote Wikisource Wikidata item. English novelist and critic — This article's lead section may be too short to adequately summarize the key points. Please consider expanding the lead to provide an accessible overview of all important aspects of the article. November Early life [ edit ]. Career [ edit ]. Death [ edit ].

Sexuality [ edit ]. Philosophy and personal thought [ edit ]. Homer [ edit ]. Theology [ edit ]. Heredity [ edit ]. Evolution [ edit ]. Music [ edit ]. Legacy and influence [ edit ]. Main works [ edit ]. References [ edit ]. Dictionary of New Zealand Biography. Ministry for Culture and Heritage. Retrieved 2 October An Illustrated Literary Guide to Shropshire.

Shropshire Libraries. ISBN A Cambridge Alumni Database. Butler hoped to be able to restore will, intelligence, and design to a universe apparently made meaningless by the blind process of natural selection. It is the supposed biography of Ernest Pontifex, narrated by an older friend with an unrelenting candor deliberately affronting conventional pieties.

The account of a grimly repressive childhood is based on Butler's own youth. As a young man, Ernest swings from naive religious zeal to despairing disillusionment, is imprisoned for propositioning an innocent girl, and upon his release makes a disastrous marriage. Finally free, he turns to a career as writer and intellectual gadfly, exposing the evils and hypocrisies of the established institutions and values that had twisted his own life.

Erewhon Revisited returns to the problem of religion and examines the relationship between rational truth and religious faith. A shorter, more critical biography is Clara G. Two good studies of Butler's ideas are P. The English poet Samuel Butler ca. The exact date of Samuel Butler's birth is samuel butler short biography. He was baptized Feb. The son of a yeoman farmer, he attended the King's School in Worcester.

Shortly after leaving school, abouthe entered the service of Elizabeth, Countess of Kent, at her home at Wrest, Bedfordshire. At Wrest he enjoyed the use of the countess's magnificent library and met some of the most learned men of his time. During the period of the Commonwealth, Butler served as clerk to a number of country magistrates, several of whom were dedicated Puritans.

While in the households of these men, he seems to have suppressed his own religious and political convictions and to have busied himself with the writing of Hudibras. It seems probable that Butler modeled his character of the ridiculous Sir Hudibras on the characters of at least two of his Puritan employers. It was not until after the death of Cromwell that Butler published his first essay, Mola asinariapleading for the restoration of the Stuarts.

In Butler began publishing Hudibras in installments. The first part, written in rhyming octosyllabic couplets, appeared late inthe second inand the third in It was an immediate success, particularly with the King and his court. Many of the surviving copies of the first edition are inscribed as gifts of Charles II to members of the court, and the number of pirated versions and spurious sequels of the poem testify to its popularity with the general public.

Although Hudibras brought Butler fame, he seems to have lived in relative obscurity after Little is known of his character and occupation during the years in which he produced the bulk of his writings. Of moderate height and strong build, he is said to have been "a good fellow" possessing "severe and sound judgment. He died Sept. Butler's contemporaries seem to have held Charles II responsible for the poverty in which the poet spent his last years.

He was buried at the expense of William Longueville, who later collected his unpublished manuscripts. These were kept intact by Longueville's heirs and published in The volumes contained much occasional poetry, a satire on the Royal Society entitled "The Elephant on the Moon," and a series of prose character sketches. The most interesting discussion of Butler and his work is by John Wilders in his edition of Hudibras People Literature and the Arts English Literature, 19th cent.

Butler, Samuel gale. Gale Contextual Encyclopedia of World Literature. Learn more about citation styles Citation styles Encyclopedia. Chapter 23 concludes: We cannot calculate on any corresponding advance in man's intellectual or physical powers which shall be a set-off against the far greater development which seems in store for the machines.

Encyclopedia of Science, Technology, and Ethics. Samuel Butler gale. Samuel Butler The English novelist and essayist Samuel Butler was a critic of established religious, social, and scientific ideas. Further Reading The most interesting discussion of Butler and his work is by John Wilders in his edition of Hudibras Butler, Samuel oxford.

Butler, Samuel — Butler's grandfather was a bishop and his father a canon of Lincoln and he would have followed them into the church had he not developed religious doubts after graduating with a first from St John's College, Cambridge. He then spent five years sheep-farming in New Zealandpartly to escape from his father. Butler had many talents, was a very competent painter and photographer, and wrote music.

As a man of letters, he turned to many forms, including scientific exposition, poetry, theological disputation, Greek translation, art, and travel. His posthumous novel The Way of all Flesh was written over many years and is partly autobiographical. Poet and satirist. Few records of Butler's life survive, but after education at Worcester he served as clerk or secretary to a succession of noble families, gaining easy access to libraries.

His commonplace books, however, say much about his ideas and opinions: in many respects a Baconian, with a practical and realistic outlook though temperamentally gloomy unless stimulated by claret, he was deeply conscious of the self-deception, hypocrisy, and folly of mankind. His scepticism found outlet in satire, where even the newly founded Royal Society was mocked.

Publication of the burlesque Hudibras brought a brief period of fame before he relapsed into comparative obscurity again. Although the legend of his poverty and neglect was probably exaggerated, it was not until that a royal pension was forthcoming, and he died poor and disappointed. Butler, Samuel — British satirical writer. His famous novel Erewhon is a classic utopian criticism of contemporary social and economic injustice.

He produced a sequel to his early masterpiece, Erewhon Revisitedand the autobiographical The Way of All Flesha biting attack on Victorian life and the values of his own upbringing. More From encyclopedia. About this article Samuel Butler author All Sources. Updated Aug 13 About encyclopedia. Samuel ben Solomon of Falaise. Samuel ben Shilat.

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