Joseph Priestley FRS (24 March 1733 – 6 February 1804) was an English chemist, natural philosopher, separatist theologian, grammarian, multi-subject educator, and liberal political theorist. During his lifetime, Priestley’s considerable scientific reputation rested on his invention of carbonated water, his writings on electricity, and his discovery of several “airs” He was forced to flee in 1791, first to London and then to the United States, after a mob burned down his Birmingham home and church.
About Joseph Priestley in brief
Joseph Priestley FRS (24 March 1733 – 6 February 1804) was an English chemist, natural philosopher, separatist theologian, grammarian, multi-subject educator, and liberal political theorist. He has historically been credited with the discovery of oxygen, having isolated it in its gaseous state, although Carl Wilhelm Scheele and Antoine Lavoisier also have strong claims to the discovery. During his lifetime, Priestley’s considerable scientific reputation rested on his invention of carbonated water, his writings on electricity, and his discovery of several \”airs\” He was forced to flee in 1791, first to London and then to the United States, after a mob burned down his Birmingham home and church. Priestley also made significant contributions to pedagogy, including the publication of a seminal work on English grammar and books on history. His metaphysical works had the most lasting influence, being considered primary sources for utilitarianism by philosophers such as Jeremy Bentham, John Stuart Mill, and Herbert Spencer. He was born to an established English Dissenting family in Birstall, near Batley in the West Riding of Yorkshire. He believed that a proper understanding of the natural world would promote human progress and eventually bring about the Christian millennium. In his metaphysical texts, he attempted to combine theism, materialism, and determinism, a project that has been called \”audacious and original\”. He believed a conversion experience was necessary for salvation, but doubted he had had one.
Around 1749 he became seriously ill and believed he was dying. This emotional distress eventually led him to question his theological upbringing, causing him to reject election and to accept universal salvation. In 1752 he decided to return to his theological studies and, two years later, he wrote the book that influenced him the most, David Hartley’s Observations on the Bible. He continued his intense study, together with the liberal atmosphere of Hartley, to treat the philosophical theory of materialism and postulated a post-materialistic view of the world. He died in Pennsylvania in 1804, having spent the last ten years of his life in Northumberland County, Pennsylvania. He is survived by his wife, Mary, and their three children, three sons, and a daughter, Anne, who was born in 1762 and died in 1783. He also leaves behind a son, John, who went on to become one of Britain’s leading scientists, and two daughters, Anne and Mary, who later became a physician. He had a son named Joseph, who became the first British citizen to be born in the US in 1801. In 1804 he died of a heart attack in New York City, and he is buried in the New Jersey Medical School. He left behind a wife and four children, all of whom are still alive and living in the U.S. Today he is remembered as one of the most influential thinkers of the 20th century, along with his son Joseph Priestley.
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