Author: [HUTCHESON (Francis)]:
Title: An Essay on the Nature and Conduct of the Passions and Affections. With Illustrations on the Moral Sense. The Third Edition.
Description: London: Printed for A. Ward, J. and P. Knapton... [inter alia] 1742 8vo, 202 x 123 mms., pp. xx [xxi - xiii Content. xiv blank], 339 [340 blank], contemporary calf, dark morocco label; front hinge strengthened, front joint cracked (but firm), top and base of spine chipped, some general wear to binding. This was Hutcheson's first philosophical work, published in 1725. "In the first of the two treatises contained in the Inquiry he argued that there is an internal sense, analogous to the five external senses, which brings to mind ideas of beauty, order, harmony, and design, whenever one perceives objects, artefacts, scenes, and compositions which exhibit uniformity amid variety. In the second treatise he argued for the presence in human nature of a moral sense which determines one to recognize virtue whenever one observes a character or an action prompted by benevolence or kind affection. He found no merit in arguments which reduce virtue to self-interest, however useful or serviceable to others such interested conduct might appear" (James Moore in ODNB). A second edition followed in 1730 and this third in 1742;a fourth edition was published ten years after Hutcheson's death in 1746. c

Keywords: Philosophy morality prose


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