We cannot verify your location
Browse Book and Journal Content on Project MUSE
OR
Browse > Philosophy
title

An Essay on the Nature and Conduct of the Passions and Affections, with Illustrations on the Moral Sense

Francis Hutcheson

Publication Year: 2012

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.

Published by: Liberty Fund

Title Page, Copyright

pdf iconDownload PDF (627.7 KB)
 

Table of Contents

pdf iconDownload PDF (518.0 KB)
pp. vii-

read more

Introduction

pdf iconDownload PDF (1.6 MB)
pp. ix-xxiii

An Essay on the Nature and Conduct of the Passions and Affections, with Illustrations on the Moral Sense (1728), jointly with Francis Hutcheson's earlier work Inquiry into the Original of Our Ideas of Beauty and Virtue (1725),1 presents one of the most original and wide-ranging moral philosophies...

read more

Acknowledgments

pdf iconDownload PDF (558.6 KB)
pp. xxv-

A number of people and institutions have helped in producing this edition of Hutcheson's Essay with Illustrations. As to institutions, special thanks are due Boston University, the Humanities Research Centre of the Australian National University, the Houghton Library at Harvard...

An Essay on the Nature and Conduct of the Passions and Affections, with Illustrations on the Moral Sense

pdf iconDownload PDF (551.4 KB)
pp. 1-

read more

The Preface

pdf iconDownload PDF (1.2 MB)
pp. 3-11

[iii] Altho the main practical Principles, which are inculcated in this Treatise, have this Prejudice in their Favour, that they have been taught and propagated by the best of Men in all Ages, yet there is reason to fear that renewed Treatises upon Subjects so often well manag' d, may be...

The Contents

pdf iconDownload PDF (115.6 KB)
pp. 13-14

read more

Treatise I. THE NATURE AND CONDUCT OF THE PASSIONS

pdf iconDownload PDF (9.9 MB)
pp. 15-132

[III] The Nature of human Actions cannot be sufficiently understood without considering the Affections and Passions; or those Modifications, or Actions of the Mind consequent upon the Apprehension of certain Objects or Events, in which the Mind generally conceives Good or Evil. [2] In this...

read more

Treatise II. Illustrations upon the Moral Sense

pdf iconDownload PDF (6.1 MB)
pp. 133-204

The Differences of Actions from which some are constituted morally Good, and others morally Evil, have always been accounted a very important Subject oflnquiry: And therefore, every Attempt to free this Subject from the usual Causes of Error and Dispute, the Confusion...

Textual Notes

pdf iconDownload PDF (1.2 MB)
pp. 205-220

Index

pdf iconDownload PDF (844.4 KB)
pp. 221-226

Production Notes

pdf iconDownload PDF (31.7 KB)
pp. 228-


E-ISBN-13: 9781614878131
E-ISBN-10: 1614878137
Print-ISBN-13: 9780865973879

Page Count: 256
Publication Year: 2012

Edition: None

Research Areas

Recommend

UPCC logo

Subject Headings

  • Emotions -- Early works to 1850.
  • Ethics.
  • You have access to this content
  • Free sample
  • Open Access
  • Restricted Access

Welcome to Project MUSE

Use the Search box at the top of the page to find book and journal content. Refine results with the filtering options on the left side of the results page. Use the Browse box to browse a selection of books and journals.

Connect with Project MUSE

Project MUSE | 2715 North Charles Street | Baltimore, Maryland USA 21218 | (410) 516-6989 | About | Contact | Help | Tools | Order

©2013 Project MUSE. Produced by The Johns Hopkins University Press in collaboration with The Milton S. Eisenhower Library.