I thought it might be of interest to readers if I offer an occasional account of major philosophical thinkers, especially Scottish philosophers. The great period of Scottish philosophical writing is the Scottish Enlightenment. I shall begin there and my first portrait will be of a philosopher who is rightly regarded as the father of the Scottish Enlightenment: Francis Hutcheson (1694-1746).
Francis Hutcheson was born on 8 August 1694, in Drumalig in Northern Ireland, the second son of John Hutcheson, an Irish Presbyterian minister of Scottish parentage. The death of his grandfather, Alexander, eased the financial constraints on the Hutcheson family and in 1711 Francis matriculated at the University of Glasgow. His subjects included classics, mathematics, moral philosophy and logic. He then studied theology. On his return to Ireland in about 1717, he was licensed as a preacher. It cannot be said that he was an unqualified success as a preacher, mainly because he emphasised the benevolence of God, a doctrine that did not appeal to the orthodox among the Irish Presbyterians (then or now).
It is reported in Stuart's
History of Armagh that on an occasion when he had replaced his indisposed father as a preacher one of the elders complained to his, doubtless mortified, father as follows: 'We a' feel muckle wae for your mishap, Reverend Sir, but it canna be concealed. Your silly loon, Frank, has fashed a' the congregation wi' his idle cackle; for he has been babbling this 'oor aboot a gude and benevolent God, and that the sauls o' the heathens themsels will gang to Heeven, if they follow the licht o' their ain consciences. Not a word does the daft boy ken, speer, nor say aboot the gude auld comfortable doctrines o' election, reprobation, original sin and faith. Hoot mon, awa' wi' sic a fellow'.
In the early 1720s, Hutcheson began a career that was to prove much more congenial to his personality and appropriate to his intellectual gifts. He was invited to Dublin by a group of Presbyterians to run a 'dissenting academy'. This period (1721–9) was the most productive in Hutcheson's academic life. He was fortunate in becoming acquainted with Lord Molesworth and his circle, around 1722–3. Lord Molesworth was particularly interested in Lord Shaftesbury's works, and in Shaftesbury (Anton Ashley Cooper, 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury) Hutcheson found a philosopher who was especially congenial to him.
During the years 1725–8 he produced two works, each in two parts: An
Inquiry into the Original of our Ideas of Beauty and Virtue (London, 1725), and
An Essay on the Nature and Conduct of the Passions and Affections, with Illustrations on the Moral Sense (London and Dublin, 1728). He also published in the
Dublin Journal in 1725–6,
Reflections upon Laughter.
In 1730, Hutcheson was invited to take up the Chair of Moral Philosophy at Glasgow University where he played an important part in liberalising the university, and became an influential teacher. His main writings at Glasgow were
A System of Moral Philosophy, written around 1733–7, but published posthumously (London 1755) and a work developed from his lectures which became his
Introduction to Moral Philosophy. All his works went through numerous editions in the 18th century and were translated into French and German.
As a professor at Glasgow, Hutcheson was much involved in committee work and in the numerous political intrigues of the various professorial factions. He was particularly concerned to improve the standards of teaching and to develop a humane Hellenic spirit of learning. Gradually, the liberalising influence of Hutcheson prevailed, especially after the appointments of William Leechman, Hutcheson's friend and later his biographer, as Professor of Divinity in 1743, and James Moor as Professor of Greek in 1746.
During his period in Dublin, he had married a Miss Mary Wilson with whom he lived happily until his death on 8 August 1746 when he was on a visit to Dublin. He is buried in St Mary's Churchyard, Dublin. One child survived out of seven. He also was called Francis, became a physician and in 1760 Professor of Chemistry at Trinity College, Dublin. He is also known as a composer of music, and some of his compositions are in the library of Trinity College, Dublin.
There are several distinctive features of Hutcheson's philosophical writings. His stress on the sentient side to human nature and its centrality in moral and aesthetic judgements represents a new and original departure for the philosophy of that period. Later, the theme was taken up by Hume and it continues to the present. Hume usually gets the credit for stressing the centrality of the sentient side of human nature in philosophy. But according to the distinguished 20th-century philosopher A N Prior: 'There is little or nothing in Hume's moral philosophy that cannot be traced to Hutcheson...'.
It is also worth recording that the theory of utilitarianism, still in vogue today, received its first explicit formulation by Hutcheson. He was the first to coin the famous slogan: '... that action is best which procures the greatest happiness of the greatest numbers...'.
In his
Short Introduction to Moral Philosophy, written in his Glasgow period, he makes a statement which will be endorsed by Ukrainians and the rest of us: 'Nothing can be more opposite to the general good of mankind than that the rights, independency, and liberty of many neighbouring nations should be exposed to be trampled upon by the pride, luxury, ambition or avarice of any nation'.
There is a case for maintaining that Hutcheson wrote the first philosophical treatise since Aristotle dealing in a perceptive way with questions of aesthetics and taste. Within aesthetic appreciation he distinguishes different species such as 'grandeur', 'novelty' and 'beauty', and he suggests the neo-classic criterion specifically for beauty 'unity in variety'. His three essays on laughter are still of interest. In our contemporary world many people are offended by some types of humour such as satire or caricature. Hutcheson offers an analysis of the moral rights and wrongs of humour.
Many of the celebrated economic ideas of Adam Smith are to be found in Hutcheson's lectures which Smith attended. Smith always retained an admiration for him. For example, in a letter to the Principal on taking up his post as Rector of Glasgow University, Smith writes of the 'abilities and virtues of the never to be forgotten Dr Hutcheson'.
Hutcheson's discussion of economic issues covers a discussion of value, by which Smith has clearly benefited. Hutcheson discusses the manner in which the demand and the supply side affect value, and how labour, materials, skill, rent and remuneration affect supply. Edwin Cannan, a distinguished editor of
The Wealth of Nations, notes that it is in Hutcheson's discussion that the core ideas of Smith's work are to be found.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, his influence extended internationally to the practical politics of North America. Hutcheson's belief that natural rights belong equally to all led him to reject any form of slavery. He writes: 'Nature makes none masters, none slaves…'. Hume has recently been 'cancelled' by the woke zealots of Edinburgh University but Hutcheson cannot be faulted. His anti-slavery views had an appeal to the abolitionist movement in North America, so it is not surprising that he was a highly influential and respected philosopher in 18th-century America.
There cannot be many Scottish philosophers who are read by Presidents of the United States, but consider the entry of 16 January 1756 in the diary of John Adams of Massachusetts, the second President of the United States: 'A fine morning. A large white frost upon the ground. Reading Hutcheson's
Introduction to Moral Philosophy'. It is also arguable that Thomas Jefferson, the third President, was influenced by Hutcheson, specifically in his approach to the Revolution of 1776.
Hutcheson is often said to be 'the father of the Scottish Enlightenment'. There is a sense in which this is true. By his teaching, and especially his celebration of Greek philosophers such as the Stoics, he did create a culture in Scotland in which ideas could flourish more easily. He frequently acknowledges his debts to Cicero, Marcus Aurelius and Aristotle. Indeed, in the portrait of Hutcheson by Allan Ramsay (in the Hunterian Art Gallery) Hutcheson is portrayed as holding a book by Cicero:
De Finibus (Concerning Ends). This book stresses the importance of harmony among the elements of human nature, of society and of government. These ideas were central in Hutcheson's political and social thinking, and indeed to Allan Ramsay's approach to portrait painting. Soon after he was appointed to the Chair at Glasgow University (1730), Hutcheson was justifiably called a 'new light'.
Hutcheson is not so well-known as Hume, partly because his writings existed mainly in scholarly (and expensive) editions. The Scottish publisher Birlinn asked me to remedy this and I edited a slim volume with a selection of his main works and added an introduction explaining his ideas.
Robin Downie is Emeritus Professor of Moral Philosophy at the University of Glasgow
