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Richard Cumberland
(15 Jul 1631 - 9 Oct 1718)
English philosopher who was Bishop of Peterborough from 1691. He is remembered for his work, De legibus naturae (On Natural Laws, 1672), in which he challenged the egoist ideas of Thomas Hobbes, instead an ethical theory based on the principle of universal benevolence. Because he promoted this viewpoint of pursuing the greatest good, he is held to be the founder of English philosophy of utilitarianism.
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Science Quotes by Richard Cumberland (1)
All other men, being born of woman, have a navel, by reason of the umbilical vessels inserted into it, which from the placenta carry nourishment to children in the womb of their mothers; but it could not be so with our first parents. It cannot be believed that God gave them navels which would have been altogether useless.
— Richard Cumberland
A Treatise of Laws of Nature (1727).
