Francis Hutcheson (philosopher)
Francis Hutcheson ( born August 8, 1694 Drumalig, Ireland, † 1746 in Glasgow, Scotland ) was a philosopher of the ( Scottish ) Enlightenment and a ( pre-) classical economist. Born in Ireland, he comes from a ( Ulster ) Scottish Presbyterian family.
Life
Francis Hutcheson studied at the University of Glasgow from 1710 to philosophy, literature and theology. In 1719 he founded a private academy in Dublin and became a preacher of the Irish Presbyterians. Ten years later he returned as a professor of moral philosophy ( and successor of his teacher Gershom Carmichael ) to Glasgow, where he remained until his death.
Work
The work of the early Enlightenment deal with ethics and economics. He can be counted on the pre-classical economics. Much more influential, he was a philosopher of ethics, as a logician and epistemologist. His ethics was prepared in Scripture Inquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of Beauty and Virtue ( 1725) and continued in An Essay on the Nature and Conduct of the Passions and Affections, with Illustrations upon the Moral Sense ( 1728). His main work is the 1755 posthumously published System of Moral Philosophy.
Like Shaftesbury, Hutcheson also turned against psychological egoism, had relied on Thomas Hobbes. He said rather predominant feelings were generous charity and compassion. A good in a moral sense act is one that is motivated by the desire for charity; yes, the larger the influence of the action ( the welfare of mankind ), it was the higher rate. By the term "greatest happiness for the greatest number " [ of people ], he took a key aspect of the utilitarianism of the English philosopher Jeremy Bentham anticipated.
In his view, people have - in addition to the five known senses - through a series of other "internal" sense: eg of beauty, honor, ridicule or morality. Latter he considered the most important of our senses. He is the one through whom we empfänden virtue or vice as such and thus triggered the feelings of pleasure or pain in us. Like the other sense, is innate moral sense. In 1738 he was having trouble with his superiors in Glasgow, as he had claimed that man has this ability, even before he acquires the knowledge of God.
Equally clearly, to Hutcheson turned against the ethical rationalism of Samuel Clarke and William Wollaston. He insisted that a course of action could be indeed called " reasonable," but that this did not mean that she is rationally controlled; Rather, the motivation is always based on a feeling. Since - according to Hutcheson - has not been proven, that ratio may provide a guideline for our actions, they can also provide neither moral motivation nor judgment criteria.
Hutcheson influenced most of the following Scottish philosopher, especially David Hume, George Turnbull, Thomas Reid, Archibald Alison and Adam Smith.