Essays on the Principles of Morality and Natural Religion

The Essays is commonly considered Kames’s most important philosophical work. In the first part, he sets forth the principles and foundations of morality and justice, attacking Hume’s moral skepticism and addressing the controversial issue of the freedom of human will. In the second part, Kames focuses on questions of metaphysics and epistemology to offer a natural theology in which the authority of the external senses is an important basis for belief in the Deity.
Essays on the Principles of Morality and Natural Religion, Corrected and Improved, in a Third Edition. Several Essays Added Concerning the Proof of a Deity, Edited and with an Introduction by Mary Catherine Moran (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 2005).
Copyright:
The copyright to this edition, in both print and electronic forms, is held by Liberty Fund, Inc.
People:
- Author: Henry Home, Lord Kames
- Editor: Mary Catherine Moran
Formats:
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EBook PDF | This text-based PDF or EBook was created from the HTML version of this book and is part of the Portable Library of Liberty. | 695 KB |
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Table of Contents
- contents
- introduction
- Kames’s Life and Writings
- Morality and Justice
- Liberty and Necessity
- Sense Perception as Common Sense
- Note on the Text
- preface to the former editions
- preface to the present edition
- contents
- PART I
- essay i: Our Attachment to Objects of Distress
- essay ii: Foundation and Principles of Moralityi
- introduction
- chapter i: Foundation of Morality
- chapter ii: Moral Sense
- chapter iii: Duty and Obligation
- chapter iv: Different Ranks of Moral Virtues
- chapter v: Principles of Action
- chapter vi: Justice and Injustice
- chapter vii: Primary Laws of Nature
- chapter viii: Law of Nations
- chapter ix: Various Opinions concerning the Foundation of Morality
- essay iii: Liberty and Necessity
- essay iv: Personal Identityi
- appendixi Containing the Substance of a Pamphlet Wrote in Defence of the Third Essay1
- PART II
- essay i: Belief
- essay ii: External Senses
- section i: Perceptions of External Senseii
- section ii: Substance and Quality
- section iii: Primary and Secondary Qualities
- section iv: Veracity of the External Senses
- essay iiii: Different Theories of Vision1
- essay ivi: Matter and Spirit1
- essay v: Power, Cause and Effect
- essay vi: Knowledge of Future Events
- essay vii: Dread of Supernatural Powers in the Dark
- essay viii: Knowledge of the Deity
- Unity of the Deity
- Power and Intelligence of the Deity
- Benevolence of the Deity
- Recapitulation
- appendix: Significant Variant Readings
- Editions
- Variant Readings to Part I
- ii.: foundation and principles of morality
- iii.: liberty and necessity
- iv.: personal identity
- appendix
- Variant Readings to Part II
- ii.: external senses
- iii.: different theories of vision
- iv.: matter and spirit
- viii.: knowledge of the deity
- bibliography
- Works Cited or Alluded to by Kames
- Secondary Literature