Book Description
The Seventh Sense is the definitive study of the aesthetic theory of the great eighteenth-century philosopher Francis Hutcheson, arguably the founder of the modern discipline of aesthetics, and one of the most important figures of the Scottish Enlightenment.This new edition brings Peter Kivy's seminal work back into print, substantially expanded by the addition of seven essays, which deal primarily with Hutcheson's relation to other thinkers, and his influence on eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century aesthetics.Part I of The Seventh Sense presents a detailed analysis of Hutcheson's aesthetic theory. Part II traces the considerable influence of Hutcheson's theory up to the early years of the nineteenth century. Part III is a new and substantial addition to the original work, collecting Peter Kivy's essays on this topic since the first edition appeared, which deal primarily with Hutcheson, David Hume, and Thomas Reid. Philosophers of art, historians of philosophy, and historians working on eighteenth-century European art and culture will find this new edition an invaluable resource. ... Read more

Book Description
1729. This work contains two treatises: concerning beauty, order, harmony, design, and concerning moral good and evil. There is no part of philosophy of more importance than a just knowledge of human nature and its various powers and dispositions. The author presents these papers as an inquiry into the various pleasures which human nature is capable of receiving. Due to the age and scarcity of the original we reproduced, some pages may be spotty, faded or difficult to read. Written in Old English. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Available editions, strange flags
Hutcheson's work is important for the history of aesthetics and empiricism, and therefore it is wonderful to find an inexpensive edition of his works, which languished in library-only authoritative editions and Grove reprints.The apparatus and introduction to this edition is good, if limited, and serviceable, but the oddity comes in the form of the publisher.Liberty Fund publishes this volume, and you may well guess their agenda.The work is part of their "Natural Law" series.Someone forces Wolfgang Leidhold to turn the discussion of the work toward its role in Revolutionary America and its importance to the idea of "Lockean" natural law.

Hutcheson is not particularly invested in the revolutionary ideas that Locke had licensed, but the publishers want him to be, and Leidhold complies with their wishes to the degree that Hutcheson will allow.

If you feel funny about giving money to the "Liberty Fund" so much that you would deprive yourself of a good, portable Hutcheson text, then so be it.For myself, I am pleased that I have a chance to own a pivotal philosophical text on a poor scholar's budget. ... Read more

Book Description
This digital document is an article from The Review of Metaphysics, published by Philosophy Education Society, Inc. on December 1, 2004. The length of the article is 993 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Kivy, Peter. The Seventh Sense: Francis Hutcheson and Eighteenth-Century British Aesthetics.(Book Review)
Author: Virgil Nemoianu
Publication: The Review of Metaphysics (Refereed)
Date: December 1, 2004
Publisher: Philosophy Education Society, Inc.
Volume: 58Issue: 2Page: 445(3)

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

Book Description
Francis Hutcheson was the first major philosopher of the Scottish Enlightenment, and one of the great thinkers in the history of British moral philosophy. He firmly rejected the view, common then as now, that morality is nothing more than the prudent pursuit of self-interest, arguing in favor of a theory of a moral sense. The two previously inaccessible texts presented here are the most eloquent expressions of this theory. Thomas Mautner's introduction provides a mass of new information on the intellectual context of Hutcheson's work. ... Read more

Book Description
1742. Although the main practical principles, which are repeated in this treatise, have this prejudice in their favor, that they have been taught and propagated by the best of men in all ages, yet there is reason to fear that renewed treatises upon subjects so often well managed may be looked upon as superfluous. In this essay, the proofs and illustrations of this point that we have a moral sense, and a sense of honor by which we discern an immediate good in virtue and honor, are not much insisted on since they have been laid down in previous treatises. Due to the age and scarcity of the original we reproduced, some pages may be spotty, faded or difficult to read. Old English text. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Above Wrong
The review is wrong. This is a critical edition of the text with extensive editorial notes, not a photocopying. I should know, I did it. As to ponderous, well Hutcheson is a bit ponderous but he's very important if you want to understand later philosophers like Hume, Kant and Bentham.

a ponderous style of discourse
The book is a direct photographing of Francis Hutcheson's most famous Essay. The English is a little archaic, but most readers will have no trouble following the text. As befits the style of writing at that time, the modern reader may well see it as very ponderous. Very easy to parody!

The logic in the text is a trifle hard to follow. And some of the issues Hutcheson raises are now long dead and forgotten. Though in his day, they must have been burning topics.

I am uncertain who will actually read this book. Limited appeal, even for the historian. ... Read more

Product Description
This Elibron Classics book is a facsimile reprint of a 1726 edition published in London. ... Read more

Book Description
On the Nature and Conduct of the Passions is a work dealing with the bases of morality and virtue, both public and private. Hutcheson argues that the natural inclination of the human being is to be virtuous, since the pleasures of being virtuous are the greatest we can experience. Individual human beings have a common inbuilt morality because of the human constitution. In addition to the five senses (sight, smell etc) he believed there was a "moral sense," both equal and complementary to these five. The picture he paints is of a human mentality positively geared to harmonious society, which stumbles and fails only when selfish interest gets in the way. Selfish interest though, was for him only a secondary phenomenon, a failure of the system, which can be corrected if only people could be brought to realize their own nature and the nature of their senses.

This edition has been fully modernized (antiquated graphemes replaced with standard modern characters). The book has a new introduction and notes by Andrew Ward. Mr. Ward is Senior Lecturer in Aesthetics, Ethics and Kant's philosophy at the University of York. All Latin and Greek extracts have been glossed by Fiona Forsyth and her colleagues at Manchester Grammar School. ... Read more