HUTCH'ESON, FRANCIS (1694-1746). A moralist of the eighteenth century, born August 8, 1694. in County Down, Ireland. His father was a Presbyterian minister. Ile studied for the Church at the University of Glasgow. but after a short term of preaching lie was induced, in 1719, to open it private academy in the city of Dublin, which proved highly successful. In 1725 he published his Inquiry into the Orig inal of Our Ideas of Beauty and Virtue, etc., which was the means of introducing him to the notice of many influential personages, such as Archbishops King and lloniter, and Lord Gran ville, then Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. This work was followed. in 1728. by his Essay on the Nature and Conduct of the Passions and A ffec lions, and in the year after he was appointed professor of moral philosophy in the University of Glasgow. Ilere he died, in 1746. His largest and most important work, A System of Moral Philosophy, was published at Glasgow in 1755 by his son. Francis Hutcheson. From the period of ITutcheson's lectures. according to Dugald Stewart, may be dated the metaphysical phi losophy of Scotland. But it is as a moral phi
losopher, rather than as a metaphysician, that Hutcheson is noteworthy. Ms system is, to a large extent, that of Shaftesbury, hut it is more complete, coherent, and clearly illustrated. Hutcheson emphasized the importance of 'calm benevolence,' and was a strong opponent of the doctrine that it has a selfish origin. Equally im portant with benevolence in his system is the moral sense, "which does not impel toward good actions, but merely judges the moral quality of actions and gives its approval to benevolence," the latter is the mainspring of good conduct. All action 'prompted by benmolence is formally good; but to be naturally good it must be an action which "procures the greatest happiness for the greatest numbers." In this respect he was a forerunner of the English I:tint:Irian.. Consult: FONVIer, Shaftesbury and Hutcheson ( London, 1882) Albee, history of English Utilitarianism (Loudon, 1902): Martineau, Types of Ethical Theory (Oxford, 1886) ; Scott, Prancis 'hack son (Cambridge, 1900).