Author: [HUTCHESON (Francis)]:
Title: An Essay on the Nature and Conduct of the Passions and Affections. With Illustrations on the Moral Sense. The Fourth Edition.
Description: London: Printed for W. Innys and J. Richardson..., 1756 8vo, 197 x 114 mms., pp. xx [xxi - xxiii Contents, xxiv blank], 339 [ 340 blank], contemporary name "James Lamont" and later name "Roger Brown" appear both on the recto of the front free end-paper and the title-page, contemporary calf; joints slightly cracked, lacks label, some general wear to binding, but a good copy. 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 a third in 1742. The present edition was published ten years after Hutcheson's death in 1746. ESTC T61170 locates four copies in UK libraries and seven copies in US libraries.

Keywords: Philosophy morality prose


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