ABSTRACT
It is a generally received Opinion that all this visible world was created for Man; that Man is the end of Creation, as if there were no end of any Creature but some way or other to be serviceable to man. This opinion is as old as Tully [Cicero]… But though this be vulgarly received, yet Wise Men nowadays think otherwise. Dr. More [the Cambridge Platonist] affirms “The Creatures are made to enjoy themselves, as well as to serve us, and that it’s a gross piece of Ignorance and Rusticity to think otherwise.” And in another place, “This comes only out of Pride and Ignorance or a haughty Presumption, because we are encouraged to believe, that in some sence, all things are made for Man, therefore to think that they are not all made for themselves. But he that pronounceth this, is ignorant of the Nature of Man, and the Knowledge of Things. For if a good Man be merciful to his Beast, then surely a good God is Bountiful and Benign, and takes pleasure that all his Creatures enjoy themselves that have Life and Sense, and are capable of Enjoyment.” For my part, I cannot believe that all things in the world were so made for Man, that they have no other use…
I believe there are many Species in Nature, which were never yet taken notice of by Man, and consequently of no Use to him, which yet we are not to think were Created in vain; but it’s likely (as the Doctor [More] saith) to partake of the overflowing Goodness of the Creator, and enjoy their own beings. But though in this sence it be not true, that all things were made for Man: yet thus far it is, that all the Creatures in the world may be some way or other useful to us, at least to exercise our Wits and Understandings, in considering and contemplating of them, and to afford us Subject of Admiring and Glorifying their and our Maker. (John Ray, Wisdom of God Manifested in the Works of the Creation [1691])1
John Locke
If Ray set the tone for naturalists, the way for philosophy was set by the founder of British empiricism and foremost of the early liberal thinkers, John Locke (1632-1704). He relied initially on the postulates of the Great Chain of Being first systematized some fourteen hundred years before but still popular at the close of the seventeenth century.
