Dissertation on the progress of ethical philosophy : chiefly during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries
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Bibliographic Information
Dissertation on the progress of ethical philosophy : chiefly during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries
（Nineteenth-century British philosophy, 2nd ser.）
Thoemmes , Kinokuniya, c1991
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The progress of ethical philosophy
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Note
Reprint. Originally published: Edinburgh : A. and C. Black, 1836
Includes bibliographical references
Description and Table of Contents
Description
Mackintosh's "Dissertation", one of the first real histories of ethics, was first published as part of the 1830 edition of the "Encyclopaedia Britannica". Such was its popularity that it was soon reprinted separately. The historical account deals briefly with ancient and medievel moral theories, then devotes most of its 400 pages to the period between 1650 and 1800, ie between Hobbes and Bentham. Mackintosh's own views seem to have been eclectic. He accepts Butler's insistence on the supremacy of conscience, yet seeks to provide conscience with a "foundation" by deriving it, as Hartley did, from the association of ideas. He goes on to attempt to reconcile Butler's position with that of the utilitarians by insisting that conscience always instructs us to do what will in fact maximize the general happiness. If this is so, utilitarian and "moral sense" theorists will always agree about what actions are right and wrong - their opposition as regards moral theory will have no consequence in practice.
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