An Inquiry into the Original of Our Ideas of Beauty and Virtue

Introduction

Hutcheson published “An Inquiry into the Original of Our Ideas of Beauty and Virtue” in London in 1725; its title page announced that it explained and defended the principles of Shaftesbury against the author of “The Fable of the Bees”. The first treatise argues that an internal sense of beauty perceives “uniformity amidst variety”; the second, that a moral sense approves of benevolence disinterestedly, so that virtue cannot be reduced to self-love. In the second treatise Hutcheson also stated that the best action is the one that procures the greatest happiness for the greatest numbers. The book founded moral sense theory and was read by Hume, Smith and, in German translation, by Kant.

Connections

Builds on

• Characteristicks of Men, Manners, Opinions, Times1711 · Shaftesbury

Criticizes

• The Fable of the Bees: or, Private Vices, Publick Benefits1714 · Bernard Mandeville

Taken up in

• A System of Moral Philosophy1755 · Francis Hutcheson

More works by Francis Hutcheson

• 1755A System of Moral Philosophy