num_pages: 192
description: On the Nature and Conduct of the Passions is a work dealing with the bases of morality and virtue, both public and private. Hutcheson argues that the natural inclination of the human being is to be virtuous, since the pleasures of being virtuous are the greatest we can experience. Individual human beings have a common inbuilt morality because of the human constitution. In addition to the five senses (sight, smell etc) he believed there was a "moral sense," both equal and complementary to these five. The picture he paints is of a human mentality positively geared to harmonious society, which stumbles and fails only when selfish interest gets in the way. Selfish interest though, was for him only a secondary phenomenon, a failure of the system, which can be corrected if only people could be brought to realize their own nature and the nature of their senses. This edition has been fully modernized (antiquated graphemes replaced with standard modern characters). The book has a new introduction and notes by Andrew Ward. Mr. Ward is Senior Lecturer in Aesthetics, Ethics and Kant's philosophy at the University of York. All Latin and Greek extracts have been glossed by Fiona Forsyth and her colleagues at Manchester Grammar School.
language: English
title: On the Nature and Conduct of the Passions
titlecomplete: On the Nature and Conduct of the Passions
genres: Philosophy
ratings_count: 17
series: Natural Law and Enlightenment Classics
publisher: Clinamen Press Ltd.