Work · Empiricism, Enlightenment & Liberalism
A System of Moral Philosophy
Posthumous summary of his Glasgow lectures on the moral sense, natural rights, the family and civil government; its arguments against natural, war and hereditary slavery were later reprinted by opponents of slavery in America.
Introduction
“A System of Moral Philosophy” was published in Glasgow and London in 1755, nine years after Hutcheson’s death, by his son, with a life of the author by William Leechman. The two volumes give the fullest account of his Glasgow lectures: human nature and the moral sense, natural rights, property and contracts, the family, and civil government, including the right of resistance and the conditions under which colonies may become independent. The chapters on slavery reject natural, war and hereditary slavery; these arguments were reprinted in Philadelphia and taken up by opponents of slavery. The book influenced the Scottish Enlightenment and political thought in America.
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- An Inquiry into the Original of Our Ideas of Beauty and Virtue1725 · Francis Hutcheson
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