GLANVILL (GLANVIL), JOSEPH. - Anglican pastor and philosopher, born at Plymouth in 1630, died at Bath in 1680. He was chaplain to Carlo II.
Having moved away from Cartesianism, G. accepted the views of empiricism: philosophy is merely the elaboration of experiential data, nor can there be an apodictic science of nature. It is nevertheless possible, from empirical-practical knowledge of nature, to arrive at the affirmation of God and religion. G. anticipated Hume in pointing out the uncertainty of the connection between cause and effect (« nam non sequitur necessario, hoc est post illud, ergo propter illud »). In contrast with these views of a sceptical tendency, G. did not later shrink from placing faith in magical practices.
His principal work was The vanity of dogmatizing or confidence in opinions etc. (London 1661), reworked under the title Scepsis scientifica or conferred ignorance, the way to science (ibid. 1665, new ed. by J. Owen, ibid. 1885). Other works: Plus ultra, or the progress and advancement of knowledge (ibid. 1668); Philosophical considerations concerning the existence of sorcerers and sorcery (ibid. 1666); Sadducismus triumphans (posthumous, ibid. 1681, reprinted with additions by H. More in 1682 and translated into German in 1701).