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Definition: Hutcheson from Collins English Dictionary

n

1 Francis. 1694–1746, Scottish philosopher: he published books on ethics and aesthetics, including System of Moral Philosophy (1755)


Hutcheson, Francis

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
(hŭch'ӘsӘn), 1694–1746, British philosopher, b. Co. Down, Ireland. He was a professor at the Univ. of Glasgow from 1729 until his death. His reputation rests on four essays published anonymously while he was living in Dublin, prior to his college teaching. Two of them were included in An Inquiry into the Original of Our Ideas of Beauty and Virtue (1725) and two in An Essay on the Nature and Conduct of the Passions and Affections, with Illustrations on the Moral Sense (1728). Although one of the first to write on the subject of aesthetics, he was primarily known in the field of ethics. According to Hutcheson, man has many senses, the most important of which is the moral sense. This “benevolent theory of morals,” in which man has a desire to do good, was a development of Shaftesbury's natural affection to benevolent action and was in opposition to Hobbes's theories. The criterion of moral action was the “greatest happiness for the greatest numbers,” an anticipation of the utilitarian…
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Full text Article Hutcheson, Francis (1694–1746),

From Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy
Scottish philosopher who was the chief exponent of the early modern moral sense theory and of a similar theory postulating a sense of beauty. He was born in Drumalig, Ireland, and completed his theological training in 1717 at the University of Glasgow, where he later taught moral philosophy. He was…
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Full text Article Hutcheson, Francis (1694–1746).

From The Oxford Companion to British History
Scots-Irish philosopher. Educated for the kirk at Glasgow University, he returned to Ireland, taught at a dissenting academy in Dublin, and became the most prominent member of Viscount Molesworth's radical Whig circle. He made his reputation by publishing three metaphysical treatises between 1725…
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Scottish moral philosopher, born Irish, who is known also for his contribution to early modern aesthetics. Following John Locke's model of the perception of secondary qualities (for example, color), Hutcheson postulated that our sense of beauty is internal, consisting of an ability to have pleasure…
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Scottish philosopher, born in Ulster, a Professor of Moral Philosophy at Glasgow (1729-46) and exponent of the theory of moral sense. His ideas were later expanded by David Hume and taken up by the Utilitarians. Wisdom denotes the pursuing of the best ends by the best means. 1725 An Inquiry into the…
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Scottish philosopher. The first to work out a systematic philosophy of moral sentiment or sense, Hutcheson was a central figure in British moral philosophy during the first half of the eighteenth century. He was born in what is now Northern Ireland and entered the University of Glasgow in 1711. …
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Full text Article WISDOM

From Collins Dictionary of Quotations
It is a fine thing even for an old man to learn wisdom. AESCHYLUS Fragments . One may learn wisdom even from one’s enemies. ARISTOPHANES Birds . A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds. …
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Full text Article GOODNESS

From Collins Dictionary of Quotations
In all things the middle state is to be praised. But it is sometimes necessary to incline towards overshooting and sometimes to shooting short of the mark, since this is the easiest way of hitting the mean and the right course. ARISTOTLE Nicomachean Ethics . Men have never been good, they are not…
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Full text Article Francis Hutcheson 1694–1746

From The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations
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Full text Article HUTCHESON'S THEORY OF HUMOR

From Elsevier's Dictionary of Psychological Theories
In his theory of humor, the British philosopher Francis Hutcheson (1694-1746) distinguishes between laughter and ridicule in which the latter is only a subspecies of the former. In Hutcheson's view, the occasion of laughter is the opposition or contrast of dignity and meanness. Hutcheson's theory of…
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Full text Article aesthetics

From Britannica Concise Encyclopedia
Philosophical study of the qualities that make something an object of aesthetic interest and of the nature of aesthetic value and judgment. It encompasses the philosophy of art, which is chiefly concerned with the nature and value of art and the principles by which it should be interpreted and…
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