1855 – 1935

W. R. Sorley

Worth knowing

Knightbridge Professor of Moral Philosophy at Cambridge from 1900 to 1933.
His Gifford Lectures, Moral Values and the Idea of God (1918), argue that moral values bind us whether we accept them or not, and that such values point to a personal God.
His son Charles, a war poet, was killed at the Battle of Loos in 1915, the year he finished giving the lectures.

In Scholar’s Dream, W. R. Sorley has one book

Moral Values and the Idea of GodW. R. Sorley, Moral Values and the Idea of God (Gifford Lectures, 1918)Natural TheologyEthics

W. R. Sorley’s quotes in the game

Every quotation from W. R. Sorley that a player meets in Scholar’s Dream, attached to the move that says it. Or see them as a plain list →

In Scholar’s Dream, books argue with each other, and each thing a book can do in a debate is called a move. Every quote below is spoken by one of those moves. Open “How it works in the game” under a quote to see the move, which books learn it, and which arguments it answers best.

“…morality is only one factor in the whole which theism professes to interpret. We cannot take it alone, as something independent of all other features of reality.”
W. R. Sorley, Moral Values and the Idea of God (Gifford Lectures 1914–15; Cambridge, 1918), Lecture XIII, public domain. (trimmed quote)public domain

How it works in the game: the move Not Along One Line

RationalityArgument · power 68 · 100% accurate

In the gameSorley is honest about his argument. The moral argument is one line of evidence among several. It shows that matter alone cannot explain the world, and leaves the rest to the other arguments.

Learned byMoral Values and the Idea of God (Lv 44)

“…their validity is not in any way dependent upon their being manifested in the character or conduct of persons, or even on their being recognised in the thoughts of persons.”
W. R. Sorley, Moral Values and the Idea of God (Gifford Lectures 1914–15; Cambridge, 1918), Lecture XIII, public domain. (trimmed quote)public domain

How it works in the game: the move It Held Before You Saw It

EthicsArgument · power 82 · 100% accurate

In the gameThe reply to every account that makes morality a thing people built — evolved, constructed, inherited. Sorley’s point is that the good has a claim on us that does not wait for our recognition and was not weaker before anyone acknowledged it.

Learned byMoral Values and the Idea of God (Lv 48)

“The question is answered if we regard the moral order as the order of a Supreme Mind and the ideal of goodness as belonging to this Mind.”
W. R. Sorley, Moral Values and the Idea of God (Gifford Lectures 1914–15; Cambridge, 1918), Lecture XIII, public domain.public domain

How it works in the game: the move The Order of a Supreme Mind

EthicsArgument · power 92 · 100% accurate

In the gameMoral values are real, they bind us whether or not we obey or even notice them, and a claim that holds like that cannot be floating in the void. Sorley’s answer: the moral order is the order of a Mind, and goodness is what that Mind is.

Learned byMoral Values and the Idea of God (Lv 52)

Strong against

×2.5Why I Am Not a Christianan argument · why?

Sorley grants the moral feeling is real — more real than Russell’s account can afford — and asks the question Russell will not: what does a binding claim like that hang on?

×2Beyond Good and Evila book · why?

Nietzsche says the value is real and the ground is gone. Sorley keeps the value and says the ground is a Mind — which is the half Nietzsche will not consider.

×2The Joyful Wisdoma book · why?

The madman is right that the crowd does not grasp what it lost. Sorley picks up the thing they dropped — a moral order — and asks where it could rest except in a Mind.

Words W. R. Sorley’s books borrow from others

Moves these books can learn whose quotation comes from somebody else. The citation on each one names who actually said it.

“For in him we live, and move, and have our being. As some of your own poets have said.”
Acts 17:28 (WEB) — Paul at the Areopagus, quoting the Athenians’ own poets back to them.

How it works in the game: the move Affirm

Status

In the gamePick the part of the opponent’s case that is true and affirm it. That point can no longer be used against you, and the opponent’s Defend falls sharply. It deals no damage. Affirm something false and you have only agreed with an error.

Learned byMoral Values and the Idea of God (Lv 11)

Who else was alive

W. R. Sorley against everyone else in the game.

A.D. 450A.D. 700A.D. 950A.D. 1200A.D. 1450A.D. 1700A.D. 1950

Boethius Boniface John of Damascus Daniel of Winchester Timothy I Alcuin of York Pope Leo III Eulogius of Córdoba Paul Alvaro of Córdoba Rimbert Humbert of Silva Candida Michael Cerularius Peter III of Antioch Anselm of Canterbury Ari Thorgilsson Ebo and Herbord Thomas Aquinas John Wyclif Lorenzo Valla Girolamo Savonarola Pope Paul III Martin Luther Miles Coverdale William Tyndale Emperor Charles V John Calvin Teresa of Ávila John Jewel The Council of Trent The English exiles at Geneva Hugo Grotius René Descartes John Owen Blaise Pascal John Bunyan Louis XIV of France Pierre Bayle Joseph Butler Jonathan Edwards Thomas Reid George Campbell William Paley John Henry Newman J. C. Ryle Friedrich Nietzsche James Orr B. B. Warfield Herman Bavinck W. R. Sorley James Denney J. Gresham Machen

Solid bar = firm dates · faded = approximate51 authors sit outside this window