Comprising two treatises, Francis Hutcheson’s An Essay on the Nature and Conduct of the Passions and Affections. With Illustrations on the Moral Sense (1728) was his second major publication that sought to refute the doctrine that self-interest was the supreme guiding principle of all rational actions. Hutcheson devised the concept of a moral sense, which supplemented reason in determining the most effective ways to advance the well-being of society, to counter the egoism espoused by philosophers, such as Thomas Hobbes, whose Leviathan, or The Matter, Forme, & Power of a Common-Wealth Ecclesiasticall and Civill (1651) argued that individuals consented to be ruled by a monarch to restrain their supposedly natural …
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Citation: Floyd, Daniel. "Essay on the Nature and Conduct of the Passions with Illustrations on the Moral Sense". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 21 September 2009 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=19834, accessed 23 November 2024.]
