The British Moralists and the Internal 'Ought' 1640}}}1740 [Hardcover]

This book provides the first study of early modern British philosophy in several decades.A major work in the history of ethics provides the first study of early modern British philosophy in several decades, discerning two distinct traditions feeding into the moral philosophy of the 17th and 18th centuries, based upon their respective definitions of obligation. A major work in the history of ethics provides the first study of early modern British philosophy in several decades, discerning two distinct traditions feeding into the moral philosophy of the 17th and 18th centuries, based upon their respective definitions of obligation. 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 the 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. This is a sophisticated book: an exemplary combination of philosophical acumen and original sclƒ+