Table of Contents

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.

Promotional Information

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

Reviews

'Positive Psychology begins with Frances Hutcheson early in the Scottish Enlightenment. Michael Gill's lucid exposition of the heavyweight thinkers of this movement is the place to begin to understand this crucial period of intellectual history.' Martin Seligman, University of Pennsylvania 'In Michael Gill's hands, the 'human nature question' becomes a powerful analytic tool that illuminates all kinds of interesting issues in early modern British moral philosophy. This book opens up insufficiently appreciated philosophical texts in ways that are simply wonderful.' Stephen Darwall, University of Michigan '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