TY - BOOK ID - 82771349 TI - On human nature AU - Hutcheson, Francis AU - Mautner, Thomas PY - 1993 SN - 0521430895 0521057108 0511521529 0511833695 PB - Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, DB - UniCat KW - Ethics, Modern KW - Human beings KW - Social ethics KW - Ethics KW - Social problems KW - Sociology KW - Homo sapiens KW - Human race KW - Humanity (Human beings) KW - Humankind KW - Humans KW - Man KW - Mankind KW - People KW - Hominids KW - Persons KW - Hutcheson, Francis, KW - Social Sciences KW - Political Science KW - Social ethics. KW - Human beings. UR - https://www.unicat.be/uniCat?func=search&query=sysid:82771349 AB - Francis Hutcheson (1694-1746) was the first major philosopher of the Scottish Enlightenment, and one of the great thinkers in the history of British moral philosophy. He firmly rejected the reductionist view, common then as now, that morality is nothing more than the prudent pursuit of self-interest, arguing in favour of a theory of a moral sense. The two texts presented here are the most eloquent expressions of this theory. The Reflections on our Common Systems of Morality insists on the connection between moral philosophy and moral improvement, and was a preview of his first major work, the Inquiry of 1725. The lecture On the Social Nature of Man, arguing against the psychological egoism of Hobbes, appears here in an English translation for the first time. Thomas Mautner's introduction and editorial apparatus provide a mass of new information, helping to give the reader a sense of the intellectual climate in which Hutcheson lived. ER -