A System of Moral Philosophy
- Francis Hutcheson (author)
- Knud Haakonssen (editor)
- Christian Maurer (editor)
A System of Moral Philosophy is the major synthesis of the moral, social, and political thought of Francis Hutcheson (1694–1746). He is one of the most influential figures of the Scottish Enlightenment, and this work is his concerted effort to make his theory of humanity’s innate moral sense compatible with and the foundation of natural jurisprudence that encompasses a system of natural rights and duties.
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To this dual intellectual construction, Hutcheson then added a third factor: his version of the republican theory of government. Hutcheson’s argument is conducted within a general metaphysical assumption that human life is providentially arranged, but it is at the same time a concrete intervention in the intense debates of the early eighteenth century about the rights of religious establishments, individual rights and duties, the justification of political authority, and the social importance of a morally educated elite. Here, Hutcheson articulates his striking criticism of slavery and colonialism.