Francis Hutcheson

Background

Hutcheson was born on August 8, 1694 in Saintfield, Northern Ireland, to a family of Scottish Presbyterians who became known as founding fathers of the Scottish Enlightenment.

Education

Hutcheson was educated at Killyleagh, and went on to Scotland to study at the University of Glasgow, where he spent six years at first in the study of philosophy, classics and general literature, and afterwards in the study of theology, receiving his degree in 1712.

Career

On quitting the university, Hutcheson returned to the north of Ireland, and received a licence to preach. When, however, he was about to enter upon the pastorate of a small dissenting congregation he changed his plans on the advice of a friend and opened a private academy in Dublin. In Dublin his literary attainments gained him the friendship of many prominent inhabitants. Among these was Archbishop King, who resisted all attempts to prosecute Hutcheson in the archbishop's court for keeping a school without the episcopal licence. Hutcheson's relations with the clergy of the Established Church, especially with the archbishops of Armagh and Dublin, Hugh Boulter (1672-1742) and William King (1650-1729), seem to have been most cordial. While residing in Dublin, Hutcheson published anonymously the four essays by which he is best known, namely, Inquiry concerning Beauty, Order, Harmony and Design, and Inquiry concerning Moral Good and Evil, in 1725, the Essay on the Nature and Conduct of the Passions and Affections and Illustrations upon the Moral Sense in 1728. The alterations and additions made in the second edition of these Essays were published in a separate form in 1726. To the period of his Dublin residence are also to be referred the Thoughts on Laughter (1725) (a criticism of Thomas Hobbes) and the Observations on the Fable of the Bees, being in all six letters contributed to Hibernicus' Letters, a periodical that appeared in Dublin (1725-1727). At the end of the same period occurred the controversy in the London Journal with Gilbert Burnet (probably the second son of The Rt. Rev. Dr Gilbert Burnet, Lord Bishop of Salisbury) on the "True Foundation of Virtue or Moral Goodness". All these letters were collected in one volume (Glasgow, 1772). In 1729, Hutcheson succeeded his old master, Gershom Carmichael, in the Chair of Moral Philosophy at the University of Glasgow, being the first professor there to lecture in English instead of Latin. It is curious that up to this time all his essays and letters had been published anonymously, but their authorship appears to have been well known. In 1730, he entered on the duties of his office, delivering an inaugural lecture (afterwards published), De naturali hominum socialitate (About the natural fellowship of mankind). During his time as a lecturer in Glasgow College he taught and influenced Adam Smith, the economist and philosopher. The remainder of his life he devoted to his professorial duties. His reputation as a teacher attracted many young men, belonging to dissenting families, from England and Ireland, and he enjoyed a well-deserved popularity among both his pupils and his colleagues. He was accused in 1738 before the Glasgow presbytery for "following two false and dangerous doctrines: first, that the standard of moral goodness was the promotion of the happiness of others; and second, that we could have a knowledge of good and evil without and prior to a knowledge of God". The accusation seems to have had no result. In addition to the works named, the following were published during Hutcheson's lifetime: a pamphlet entitled Considerations on Patronage (1735); Philosophiae moralis institutio compendiaria, ethices et jurisprudentiae naturalis elementa continens, lib. iii. (Glasgow, 1742); Metaphysicae synopsis ontologiam et pneumatologiam campleciens (Glasgow, 1742). The last work was published anonymously. After his death, his son, Francis Hutcheson published much the longest of his works, A System of Moral Philosophy, in Three Books (2 vols. . London, 1755). To this is prefixed a life of the author, by Dr William Leechman, professor of divinity in the University of Glasgow. The only remaining work assigned to Hutcheson is a small treatise on Logic (Glasgow, 1764). This compendium, together with the Compendium of Metaphysics, was republished at Strassburg in 1722. Thus Hutcheson dealt with metaphysics, logic and ethics. His importance is, however, due almost entirely to his ethical writings, and among these primarily to the four essays and the letters published during his time in Dublin. His standpoint has a negative and a positive aspect; he is in strong opposition to Thomas Hobbes and Mandeville, and in fundamental agreement with Shaftesbury, whose name he very properly coupled with his own on the title page of the first two essays. Obvious and fundamental points of agreement between the two authors include the analogy drawn between beauty and virtue, the functions assigned to the moral sense, the position that the benevolent feelings form an original and irreducible part of our nature, and the unhesitating adoption of the principle that the test of virtuous action is its tendency to promote the general welfare. Francis Hutcheson spent time in Dublin, and died while on a visit to that city in 1746.

Achievements

• Hutcheson was an Irish philosopher and major exponent of the theory of the existence of a moral sense through which man can achieve right action.

Works

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  • A System of Moral Philosophy: In Three Books (Cambridge Library Collection - Philosophy) (Volume 1)

    (Often described as the father of the Scottish Enlightenme...)

  • A Short Introduction To Moral Philosophy, In Three Parts: Containing The Elements Of Ethics, And The Law Of Nature (1787)

    (This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of th...)

  • Philosophiae Moralis Institutio Compendiaria, with A Short Introduction to Moral Philosophy (Natural Law Paper)

    (Natural Law and Enlightenment Classics)

  • Logic, Metaphysics, and the Natural Sociability of Mankind (Natural Law Paper)

    (Natural Law and Enlightenment Classics)

  • An Inquiry into the Original of Our Ideas of Beauty and Virtue (Natural Law Paper)

Personality

Though somewhat quick-tempered, Hutcheson was remarkable for his warm feelings and generous impulses.

Connections

Hutcheson was married to his cousin Mary, daughter of Francis Wilson of Longford. Her dowry included extensive property holdings including the townlands of Drumnacross, Garrinch, and Knockeagh, in County Longford. They had seven children of whom only one survived, also called Francis.

Spouse:

Mary Wilson

Son:

Francis Hutcheson

He was an Irish songwriter, physician and lecturer in chemistry.

Friend:

William King

References

• Francis Hutcheson
• Motivation and the Moral Sense in Francis Hutcheson’s Ethical Theory (International Archives of the History of Ideas Archives internationales d'histoire des idées)
• Francis Hutcheson: Selected Philosophical Writings (Library of Scottish Philosophy)
• The Seventh Sense: Francis Hutcheson and Eighteenth-Century British Aesthetics
• Francis Hutcheson: His Life, Teaching and Position in the History of Philosophy (Classic Reprint)