Jonathan Dymond (1796–1828) was an English Quaker and an ethical philosopher who is known for his monograph ''An Enquiry into the Accordancy of War with the Principles of Christianity''.

Life

Jonathan Dymond was the son of a Quaker linen-draper of Exeter, County Devon in England. Both his parents were '

Recorded Minister A Recorded Minister was originally a male or female Quaker who was acknowledged to have a gift of spoken ministry. The practice of recording in a Monthly Meeting Minute the acknowledgment that a Friend had a gift of spoken ministry began in the 1 ...

s' of the Society of Friends. He had little formal education but used his time off from working in his father's shop to read and to write essays on religious and moral problems, as well as composing poetry. He determined that he should devote his energies to 'the honour of advocating peace'. In his view war was "an evil before which, in my estimation, slavery sinks into insignificance". In 1825 he attended the annual meeting of the

Peace Society The Peace Society, International Peace Society or London Peace Society originally known as the Society for the Promotion of Permanent and Universal Peace, was a pioneering British pacifist organisation that was active from 1816 until the 1930s. H ...

in London and went on to help set up a branch of that society in Exeter. He soon had to withdraw from taking an active part due to his failing health.

Works

Three works by Dymond have been published, two during his lifetime, the ''Inquiry'' and the ''Observations'', and one posthumously, the ''Essays''. A collection of his published and unpublished letters, poems and writings was made in 1911 by Charles William Dymond. # ''An inquiry into the Accordancy of War with the Principles of Christianity, and an Examination of the Philosophical Reasoning by which it is defended: with Observations on Some of the Causes of War and Some of Its Effects.'' 1823 in England hiladelphia 1834 ritish Library 001023068 # ''Observations on the Applicability of the Pacifist Principles of the New Testament on the Conduct of States, and on the Limitations which those principles impose on the Rights of Self-defence.'' London Peace Society Tract No. VII, 1825 ritish Library #001023074 # ''Essays on the Principles of Morality, and on the Private and Political Rights and Obligations of Mankind.'' In two volumes, Hamilton, Adams & Co, 1829 ritish Library #001023056 # ''Memoir, letters and poems of Jonathan Dymond : with bibliographical supplements'': Charles William Dymond: privately printed, Bristol, 1911 ritish Library # 007585688

Views

In his works Dymond extended the pacifist argument against war beyond the purely Christian insight of earlier generations of Quakers to wider more rationalist arguments, as in this against the notion of a distinction between aggressive and defensive war from the ''Inquiry'': Dymond was a fervent antimilitarist. He saw armies as enemies of liberty and physical and moral subjection as a necessary condition of army life. The opinion he voiced prefigures some of the later objections to conscription made by Quakers and other conscientious objectors.

References

External links

* * Jonathan Dymond ''Essays on the principles of morality & on the private & political rights & obligations of mankind'' (1896
Full text at Internet Archive
* Jonathan Dymond ''Judicial oaths : their moral character and effects'' (1889
Full text at Internet Archive
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dymond, Jonathan 1796 births 1828 deaths 18th-century Quakers Christian ethicists English Christian pacifists English male non-fiction writers English philosophers English Quakers Non-interventionism

Life

Works

Views

See also

References

Further reading

External links