PANTHEON
ExploreBuild My Library
© 2026 Pantheon — an atlas of the ideas that shaped how we think.
book1725

An Inquiry into the Original of Our Ideas of Beauty and Virtue

Disciplines:
ethics
aesthetics

Summary

Francis Hutcheson's foundational work arguing that beauty and virtue are perceived through distinct internal senses — not derived from reason or self-interest — and prefiguring utilitarian moral calculus.

Core Contribution

Establishes the moral sense as an innate faculty producing approbation for benevolent actions; the aesthetic sense produces pleasure from uniformity amidst variety; both operate independently of rational calculation.

Historical Influences

Francis Hutcheson

Intellectual Lineage

No conceptual lineage found.

Allied Works

Theory of Moral Sentiments A Treatise of Human Nature

Contemporaries & Peers

No recorded contemporaries.

Minds Influenced

No recorded minds influenced.

Intellectual Posterity

No conceptual posterity found.

Discussing

An Inquiry into the Original of Our Ideas of Beauty and Virtue

Ask anything about An Inquiry into the Original of Our Ideas of Beauty and Virtue — their ideas, influences, contradictions, legacy.

Sign in to start a conversation.