Skip to content

Joseph Butler Bibliography

Primary Sources: 

  1. Joseph Butler: Fifteen Sermons and Other Writings on Ethics. Oxford University Press, 2017
  2. Butler, Joseph. Fifteen Sermons Preached at the Rolls Chapel. Christian Classics Ethereal Library, www.ccel.org/ccel/butler/sermons
  3. Modern Edited Volume: Joseph Butler: Fifteen Sermons and Other Writings on Ethics. Oxford UP, 2017.

Secondary Philosophical Sources: 

  1. “Butler, Joseph.” Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, www.iep.utm.edu/joseph-butler                                                                        This article introduces Joseph Butler as an early modern moral philosopher and theologian. It outlines his life, significant works, and central ideas about conscience, self‑love, and benevolence. The entry also places Butler in conversation with other thinkers of his time, especially Hobbes and other moral philosophers who argued about what really motivates human beings. On my website, I plan to use this source to give readers a clear overview of Butler’s ideas as well as to support my own claim that his “dark” view of self‑deception is compatible with a optimistic understanding of conscience.
  1.  Kawall, Jason. “Joseph Butler’s Moral Philosophy.” The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, edited by Edward N. Zalta, Fall 2020 ed., plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2020/entries/butler-moral.                               This article offers a more technical reconstruction of Butler’s moral psychology, carefully analyzing how self‑love, particular passions, benevolence, and conscience are related in his theory. Kawall explains Butler’s main arguments against egoism and overly sentimental moral theories while simultaneously showing how Butler uses the idea of conscience to answer said arguments. The piece also discusses Butler’s treatment of self‑deception and hypocrisy, emphasizing how people systematically blind themselves to their real motives.
  1. “Fifteen Sermons Preached at the Rolls Chapel by Joseph Butler.” Research Starters: Literature and Writing, EBSCOhost.                                                 This research‑starter summarizes the main themes of Fifteen Sermons, especially Butler’s insistence that self‑love and benevolence are not simple opposites and that conscience has authority over both. It highlights key sermons and explains in plain language how Butler thinks and argues. The article also points out how Butler uses examples of everyday behavior to show how self‑deception works and why moral failure is so common. I plan to use this source to choose which specific sermons to focus on and to help me present Butler’s ideas in straightforward terms for my website audience.