Essays from the founder of modern aesthetics.
Francis Hutcheson has long been celebrated for his moral philosophy, which greatly influenced David Hume and other thinkers of the Enlightenment. More recently he has been accepted as the founder of modern aesthetics, the source of Adam Smith's economic ideas, and a major philosophical influence on eighteenth-century America. For these reasons contemporary philosophers have seen the need to reassess his entire philosophy. This volume provides a rounded compilation of all aspects of his thought.
The sections dealing with aesthetics and ethics are drawn from Hutcheson's four 'Treatises' and 'Reflections upon Laughter' written in Dublin 1725-28. Extracts dealing with his legal, political and economic ideas are taken from his 'System of Moral Philosophy (published posthumously in 1755) and from 'A Short Introduction To Moral Philosophy' (1747).
A comprehensive paperback edition with introduction and chronology of Hutcheson's life and times.
