Francis Hutcheson was an Irish philosopher born in Ulster to a family of Scottish Presbyterians who became known as one of the founding fathers of the Scottish Enlightenment. He is remembered for his book "A System of Moral Philosophy".
Hutcheson took ideas from John Locke, and he was an important influence on the works of several significant Enlightenment thinkers, including David Hume and Adam Smith.
“That Action is best, which procures the greatest Happiness for the greatest Numbers”
An Inquiry into the Original of our Ideas of Beauty and Virtue (1725) Treatise II, Section 3
Context: That Action is best, which procures the greatest Happiness for the greatest Numbers; and that worst, which, in like manner, occasions Misery.
“Wisdom denotes the pursuing of the best Ends by the best Means.”
An Inquiry into the Original of our Ideas of Beauty and Virtue (1725), Treatise I, Sect. V
An Inquiry into the Original of our Ideas of Beauty and Virtue (1725), Treatise II: An Inquiry concerning Moral Good and Evil, Sect. I
“Men have been Laughed out of Faults which a Sermon could not reform.”
The Dublin Weekly Journal, No. 12 (June 19, 1725)
A System of Moral Philosophy (1755) Book II, Ch. III
An Essay on the Nature and Conduct of the Passions and Affections (1728), Treatise II: Illustrations upon the Moral Sense, Sect. I
A System Of Moral Philosophy (1755), Book II, Ch. II
