From the Back Cover
'We shall find many other senses beside those commonly acknowledged.' An immensely popular teacher and resolute innovator, Francis Hutcheson (1694 - 1746) laid the ground in moral philosophy for what was to become the Scottish Enlightenment. Despite being a member of the clergy, Hutcheson's position as Chair of Moral Philosophy at Glasgow University afforded him comparative safety to depart from the theological verities. On the Nature and Conduct of the Passions and the accompanying treatise, Illustrations on the Moral Sense, address a blind spot, as Hutcheson saw it, in the philosophy of the day, which prevented recognition of the 'moral sense; as such; a sense, just as literally as sight, touch or taste. Grounding his case in lived experience, and establishing an authoritative position against the moral philosophy of the day, Hutcheson formulated in these works an immense moral universe both public and private, which was to inform David Hume's philosophy and Immanuel Kant's critical system. This influential text is modernised and annotated for the first time, with an introduction by Andrew Ward.
About the Author
Francis Hutcheson (1694 - 1746), eminent writer on mental and moral philosophy, was born on the 8th of August 1694. Though his family had sprung from Ayrshire in Scotland, both his father and grandfather were ministers of dissenting congregations in the North of Ireland. While residing in Dublin, Hutcheson published anonymously the four essays by which he still remains best known, namely the Inquiry concerning Beauty, Order, Harmony, Design and the Inquiry concerning Moral Good and Evil, in 1725, and the "Essay on the Nature and Conduct of the Passions and Affections" and "Illustrations upon the Moral Senses," in 1728. In 1729 Hutcheson was elected as the successor of his old master, Gerschom Carmichael, to the chair of moral philosophy in the University of Glasgow, and it was from this position that his teaching spread to the extent that he is now known as the father of the Scottish Enlightenment. In addition to the works already named, the following were published during Hutcheson's lifetime: - a pamphlet entitled "Considerations on Patronage," addressed to the Gentlemen of Scotland, 1735; Philosophae Moralis Institutio Compendiaria, Ethices et Jurisprudentiae Natralis Elementa continens, Lib. III., 1742; Metaphysicae Synopsis Ontologiam et Pneumatalogiam complectens, 1742.
After his death, his son, Francis Hutcheson, M.D., published in two volumes, quarto, what is much the longest, though by no means the most interesting, of his works, A System of Moral Philosophy, in Three Books, 1755. To this is prefixed a life of the author, by Dr William Leechman, professor of divinity in the university of Glasgow. The only remaining work that we are able to assign to Hutcheson is a small treatise on Logic, which, according to his biographer was "not designed for the public eye," but which was published by Foulis at Glasgow in 1764. Of all these works, however, those alone on which Hutcheson's philosophical reputation rests are the four essays, and perhaps the letters, all published during his residence in Dublin.
Perhaps best known now for coining the phrase 'the greatest good for the greatest number', Hutcheson's influence on figures as diverse as Immanuel Kant, Adam Smith, Thomas Reid and John Stuart Mill is undeniable.
