 | An Essay on the Nature and Conduct of the Passions and Affections, with Illustrations on the Moral Sense 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. 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 (1694-1746) was educated at the University of Glasgow, where he assumed the chair of moral philosophy in 1729. Aaron Garrett is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Boston University. Please note: This title is available as an ebook for purchase on Amazon , Barnes and Noble , and iTunes .The founder of moral sense theory was born in County Down, Ireland. Francis Hutcheson's father and grandfather were Presbyterian ministers, and he studied at the University of Glasgow from 1711 to 1717 in preparation for the Presbyterian ministry. For the next decade, he taught at an academy for dissenting clergy in Dublin, most of the time serving as its head. He was appointed professor of moral philosophy at Glasgow in 1730, a position he held until his death. Hutcheson's principal contributions to philosophy were in the fields of moral philosophy and aesthetics. His chief works are Inquiry into the Original of Our Ideas of Beauty and Virtue (1725), Philosophiae Moralis Institutio (1742), and the posthumously published System of Moral Philosophy (1755). Against the English rationalists Samuel Clarke and Richard Price, Hutcheson rigorously developed Shaftesbury's suggestion that moral distinctions are made by our sensitive rather than our rational nature. In aesthetics he gave an analogous account of our sense of beauty. Hutcheson's theories profoundly influenced Hume and also had a significant impact on Kant in his precritical period. (Bowker Author Biography) |
