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Hutcheson: Two Texts on Human Nature


Hutcheson: Two Texts on Human Nature

Paperback by Hutcheson, Francis; Mautner, Thomas (Australian National University, Canberra)

Hutcheson: Two Texts on Human Nature

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ISBN:
9780521057103
Publication Date:
24 Mar 2008
Language:
English
Publisher:
Cambridge University Press
Pages:
212 pages
Format:
Paperback
For delivery:
Estimated despatch 24 - 29 May 2024
Hutcheson: Two Texts on Human Nature

Description

Francis Hutcheson (1694-1746) was the first major philosopher of the Scottish Enlightenment, and one of the great thinkers in the history of British moral philosophy. He firmly rejected the reductionist view, common then as now, that morality is nothing more than the prudent pursuit of self-interest, arguing in favour of a theory of a moral sense. The two texts presented here are the most eloquent expressions of this theory. The Reflections on our Common Systems of Morality insists on the connection between moral philosophy and moral improvement, and was a preview of his first major work, the Inquiry of 1725. The lecture On the Social Nature of Man, arguing against the psychological egoism of Hobbes, appears here in an English translation for the first time. Thomas Mautner's introduction and editorial apparatus provide a mass of new information, helping to give the reader a sense of the intellectual climate in which Hutcheson lived.

Contents

Introduction; Reflections on the Common Systems of Morality; Inaugural Lecture on the Social Nature of Man; Appendices; Bibliography.

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