The writings of Francis Hutcheson played a central role in the
development of British moral philosophy in the eighteenth century.
His "Illustrations on the Moral Sense" is significant not only
historically but also for its exploration of problems of concern in
contemporary ethics. Yet except for brief selections it has not
appeared in print since the eighteenth century.
Independent moral philosophy began in England with Hobbes and
the reactions to his views, in which two divergent strains were
implicit: one a rationalistic appeal to eternal and immutable
essences and the other an empirical appeal to human affections and
desires. Hutcheson countered Hobbes' theory, which was based on
self interest, with a theory based on the moral sense and made
explicit the opposition between the school of reason and the school
of sentiment. His treatment of these and other issues set British
moral philosophy on a line of development that has continued to the
present.
This edition of "Illustrations on the Moral Sense" again makes
available Hutcheson's contributions to normative ethics and
metaethics, thus making possible a more accurate evaluation of his
significance in the history of ethics. His epistemology of morals
and his theory of justification are critically examined in a
substantial introduction by the editor, Bernard Peach. In addition,
Hutcheson's correspondence with Gilbert Burnet, the Younger, which
is central to an understanding of the controversies in British
moral philosophy in the eighteenth century, is made accessible here
for the first time since 1735 in an extensive appendix.
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