The British Moralists and the Internal 'Ought'
1640–1740

This book provides the first study of early modern British philosophy in several decades.

Stephen Darwall (Author)

9780521451673, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 26 May 1995

372 pages
23.6 x 16 x 2.7 cm, 0.626 kg

'In this tour-de-force Michael Gill convincingly redefines the course of British moral philosophy over the seventeenth and early eighteenth- centuries. With sure philosophical judgment he weaves his narrative around the oscillation between pessimistic and optimistic views human nature in the major writers of the period, culminating in the cautiously progressive and subtle reconciliation in David Hume. All future work on the history of the Enlightenment, and the philosophy of the time, will need to start with this book.' Simon Blackburn, University of Cambridge

This book is a major work in the history of ethics, and provides the first study of early modern British philosophy in several decades. Professor Darwall discerns two distinct traditions feeding into the moral philosophy of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. On the one hand, there is the empirical, naturalist tradition, comprising Hobbes, Locke, Cumberland, Hutcheson, and Hume, which argues that obligation is the practical force that empirical discoveries acquire in the process of deliberation. On the other hand, there is a group including Cudworth, Shaftesbury, Butler, and in some moments Locke, which views obligation as inconceivable without autonomy and which seeks to develop a theory of the will as self-determining.

1. The British moralists: inventing internalism
2. Culverwell and Locke: classical and modern natural law
3. Hobbes: ethics as 'consequences from the passions of men'
4. Cumberland: obligation naturalised
5. Cudworth: obligation and self-determining moral agency
6. Locke: autonomy and obligation in the revised Essay
7. Shaftesbury: authority and authorship
8. Huteson: moral sentiment and calm desire
9. Butler: conscience as self-authorising
10. Hume: norms and the obligation to be just
11. Concluding reflections.

Subject Areas: Political science & theory [JPA], History of ideas [JFCX], Ethics & moral philosophy [HPQ]