In this Book
- An Essay on the Nature and Conduct of the Passions and Affections, with Illustrations on the Moral Sense
- Book
- 2012
- Published by: Liberty Fund
- Series: Natural Law Paper
summary
In An Essay on the Nature and Conduct of the
Passions and Affections, with Illustrations on
the Moral Sense, Francis Hutcheson answers the
criticism that had been leveled against his first book
Inquiry into the Original of Our Ideas of Beauty and
Virtue (1725). Together the two works constitute the
great innovation in philosophy for which Hutcheson is
most well known.
The first half of the Essay presents a rich moral
psychology built on a theory of the passions and an
account of motivation, deepening and augmenting the
doctrine of moral sense developed in the Inquiry.
The second half of the work, the Illustrations, is a
brilliant attack on rationalist moral theories and is the
font of many of the arguments taken up by Hume and
used to this day.
As editor Aaron Garrett notes, “In the Essay
Hutcheson provides his crucial argument against
Hobbes and Mandeville, that not just egoistic self-preservation,
but also benevolence, is an essential
feature of human nature.”
Professor Garrett has constructed a critical
variorum edition of this great work. Because there are
no manuscripts of the work, this could be done only by
comparing all extant lifetime editions. Three such
editions exist: those of 1728, 1730 (chiefly a reprint of
the 1728 edition), and 1742. The Liberty Fund edition
collates the first edition with Hutcheson’s revision of
1742.Francis Hutcheson was a crucial link between the continental European
natural law tradition and the emerging Scottish Enlightenment. Hence, he is a pivotal figure
in the Natural Law and Enlightenment Classics series. A contemporary of Lord Kames and George
Turnbull, an acquaintance of David Hume, and the teacher of Adam Smith, Hutcheson was
arguably the leading figure in making Scotland distinctive within the general European
Enlightenment.Aaron Garrett is Associate
Professor of Philosophy at Boston
University.Knud Haakonssen is Professor of Intellectual History and Director of the Centre for Intellectual History at the University of Sussex, England.
Table of Contents
Download Full Book
- Table of Contents
- p. vii
- Introduction
- pp. ix-xxiii
- Acknowledgments
- p. xxv
- The Preface
- pp. 3-11
- The Contents
- pp. 13-14
- Textual Notes
- pp. 205-220
- Production Notes
- p. 228
Additional Information
ISBN
9781614878131
Related ISBN(s)
9780865973879
MARC Record
OCLC
61931755
Pages
256
Launched on MUSE
2013-01-01
Language
English
Open Access
No