In light of the fact that Francis Hutcheson was one of the most influential philosophers of the Scottish Enlightenment, it is remarkable that there has never been an edition of his correspondence.
Hutcheson's epistolary offerings include letters published in journals in England, Ireland, and the Netherlands. These letters and occasional writings exhibit his polemical skills in controversy, his differences with Presbyterian orthodoxy, his preoccupation with religious and intellectual liberty, and his loyalty and lasting affection for his friends.
These incidental writings provide valuable insight into Hutcheson's more substantial treatises. His private correspondence and such documents as his will and the declaration he made upon becoming a professor at the University of Glasgow give the reader an impression of Hutcheson's personality and his various life experiences. The volume includes Hutcheson's letters to the "London Journal" previewing his first philosophical work, "An Inquiry into the Original of Our Ideas of Beauty and Virtue," and his philosophical critiques of Thomas Hobbes and Bernard Mandeville.
Hutcheson's private correspondence includes nineteen letters written to the Reverend Thomas Drennan concerning Hutcheson's frustrations with theological orthodoxy in Glasgow and academia in Scotland, thirteen letters from his cousin William Bruce, the famous letters from David Hume, and the letter that Hutcheson wrote to his father in July 1726 on the subject of church government.
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.
James Moore is Emeritus Professor of Political Science at Concordia University in Montreal.
M. A. Stewart is Honorary Research Professor in the History of Philosophy at the Universities of Lancaster and Aberdeen.
Knud Haakonssen is Professor of Intellectual History and Director of the Centre for Intellectual History at the University of Sussex, England.

In light of the fact that Francis Hutcheson (1694-1746) was one of the most influential philosophers of the Scottish Enlightenment, it is remarkable that there has never been an edition of his correspondence. Hutcheson's epistolary offerings include letters published in journals in England, Ireland, and the Netherlands. These letters and occasional writings exhibit his polemical skills in controversy, his differences with Presbyterian orthodoxy, his preoccupation with religious and intellectual liberty, and his loyalty and lasting affection for his friends. Hutcheson engaged in extensive public polemics, not least to defend his major works but also to promote other causes. These incidental writings provide valuable insight into Hutcheson's more substantial treatises. His private correspondence and such documents as his will and the declaration he made upon becoming a professor at the University of Glasgow give the reader an impression of Hutcheson's personality and his various life experiences.

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.

This publication is a parallel edition of the English and Latin versions of a book designed by Hutcheson for use in the classroom. General Editor Knud Haakonssen remarks that "Hutchesons Institutio was written as a textbook for university students and it therefore covers a curriculum which has an institutional background in his own university, Glasgow. This was a curriculum crucially influenced by Hutchesons predecessor Gershom Carmichael, and at its center was modern natural jurisprudence as systematised by Grotius, Pufendorf, and others ...The Institutio is the first major [published] attempt by Hutcheson to deal with natural law on his own terms ...It therefore encapsulates the axis of natural law and Scottish Enlightenment ideas, which so many other thinkers, including Adam Smith, worked with in their different ways. It is of great significance that this work issued from the class in which Smith sat as a student."

This 1742 translation is a collaborative work by Frances Hutcheson and a colleague at Glasgow University, the classicist James Moor. Although Hutcheson was secretive about the extent of his work on the book, he was clearly the leading spirit of the project. This influential classical work offered a vision of a universe governed by a natural law that obliges us to love mankind and to govern our lives in accordance with the natural order of things. In their account of the life of the emperor, prefaced to their translation from the Greek, Hutcheson and Moor celebrated the Stoic ideal of an orderly universe governed by a benevolent God. They contrasted the serenity recommended and practiced by Marcus Aurelius with the divisive sectarianism then exhibited by their fellow Presbyterians in Scotland and elsewhere. They urged their readers and fellow citizens to set aside their narrow prejudices.

This publication is a parallel edition of the English and Latin versions of a book designed by Hutcheson for use in the classroom. General Editor Knud Haakonssen remarks that "Hutchesons Institutio was written as a textbook for university students and it therefore covers a curriculum which has an institutional background in his own university, Glasgow. This was a curriculum crucially influenced by Hutchesons predecessor Gershom Carmichael, and at its center was modern natural jurisprudence as systematised by Grotius, Pufendorf, and others ...The Institutio is the first major [published] attempt by Hutcheson to deal with natural law on his own terms ...It therefore encapsulates the axis of natural law and Scottish Enlightenment ideas, which so many other thinkers, including Adam Smith, worked with in their different ways. It is of great significance that this work issued from the class in which Smith sat as a student."

Until the publication of this Liberty Fund edition, the works contained in "Logic, Metaphysics, and the Natural Sociability of Mankind" were available only to that elite group of scholars and readers who could read Latin. This milestone English translation will provide a general audience with insight into Hutchesons thought. In the words of the editors: "Hutchesons Latin texts in logic (Logicae Compendium) and metaphysics (Synopsis Metaphysicae) form an important part of his collected works. Published respectively in 1756 and, in its second edition, 1744, these works represent Hutchesons only systematic treatments of logic, ontology, and pneumatology, or the science of the soul. They were considered indispensable texts for the instruction of students in the eighteenth century. Any serious study of Hutchesons moral and political philosophy must take into account his understanding of logic (of ideas, judgments, propositions, and reasoning) and metaphysics (of existence, individuation, causation, substance, the soul, and the attributes of God)." The introduction and notes to this translation provide context to Hutchesons moral philosophy and thus provide a setting for his philosophy as a whole. The introduction and notes also provide links to Hutchesons teaching of logic and metaphysics during his career in Dublin in the 1720s and to his teaching of moral philosophy at Glasgow from 1730 until his death in 1746.

Until the publication of this Liberty Fund edition, the works contained in "Logic, Metaphysics, and the Natural Sociability of Mankind" were available only to that elite group of scholars and readers who could read Latin. This milestone English translation will provide a general audience with insight into Hutchesons thought. In the words of the editors: "Hutchesons Latin texts in logic (Logicae Compendium) and metaphysics (Synopsis Metaphysicae) form an important part of his collected works. Published respectively in 1756 and, in its second edition, 1744, these works represent Hutchesons only systematic treatments of logic, ontology, and pneumatology, or the science of the soul. They were considered indispensable texts for the instruction of students in the eighteenth century. Any serious study of Hutchesons moral and political philosophy must take into account his understanding of logic (of ideas, judgments, propositions, and reasoning) and metaphysics (of existence, individuation, causation, substance, the soul, and the attributes of God)." The introduction and notes to this translation provide context to Hutchesons moral philosophy and thus provide a setting for his philosophy as a whole. The introduction and notes also provide links to Hutchesons teaching of logic and metaphysics during his career in Dublin in the 1720s and to his teaching of moral philosophy at Glasgow from 1730 until his death in 1746.

This 1742 translation is a collaborative work by Frances Hutcheson and a colleague at Glasgow University, the classicist James Moor. Although Hutcheson was secretive about the extent of his work on the book, he was clearly the leading spirit of the project. This influential classical work offered a vision of a universe governed by a natural law that obliges us to love mankind and to govern our lives in accordance with the natural order of things. In their account of the life of the emperor, prefaced to their translation from the Greek, Hutcheson and Moor celebrated the Stoic ideal of an orderly universe governed by a benevolent God. They contrasted the serenity recommended and practiced by Marcus Aurelius with the divisive sectarianism then exhibited by their fellow Presbyterians in Scotland and elsewhere. They urged their readers and fellow citizens to set aside their narrow prejudices.

In this work William Henry Chamberlin offers his perspective as a seasoned journalist on the United States' involvement in World War II. Written only five years after the unconditional surrenders of Germany and Japan, the book is a window into its time.
William Henry Chamberlin (1897-1969) was an American journalist best known for his writings on the Cold War, Communism, and U.S. foreign policy.