Hutcheson, FRANCIS

Hutcheson, FRANCIS, a distinguished philosopher of the 18th century, was the son of a Presbyterian minister in the north of Ireland, where he was born in 1694. He studied for the church at the university of Glasgow, but shortly after the completion of his theological course he was induced to open a private academy in the city of Dublin, which proved highly successful. In 1720 he published his Inquiry into the Original of our Ideas of Beauty and Virtue, &c., which was the means of introducing him to the notice of many influential personages, such as Lord Granville, then lord-lieutenant of Ireland, Archbishop King, Primat Boulter, and others. This work was followed in 1728 by his Essay on the Nature and Conduct of the Passions; and in the year after he was appointed professor of Moral Philosophy in the university of Glasgow. Here he died in 1747. In his lifetime he published various minor books, including a small treatise on Logic; but his largest work, A System of Moral Philosophy, was published at Glasgow in 1755 by his son, Francis Hutcheson, M.D., with a Life by Dr Leechman. As a metaphysician Hutcheson may in some respects be considered a pioneer of the so-called 'Scotch school' and of the common-sense philosophy, although he is largely influenced by Locke. From the delivery of Hutcheson's lectures, according to Dugald Stewart, may be dated the metaphysical philosophy of Scotland. But it is as a moral philosopher, rather than as a metaphysician, that Hutcheson was conspicuous. His system is to a large extent that of Shaftesbury, but it is more complete, coherent, and clearly illustrated. Hutcheson is a strong opponent of the doctrine that benevolence has a selfish origin; he is practically a utilitarian; and the faculty by which moral distinctions are recognised Hutcheson (after Shaftesbury) terms a moral sense. See ETHICS; Fowler, Shaftesbury and Hutcheson (1882); and W. R. Scott, Francis Hutcheson (1900).