Beauty and Virtue

About this Collection

Francis Hutcheson entered a controversy among moral philosophers over whether or not human nature was primarily “benevolent” or “selfish”. The former position was taken by the Earl of Shaftesbury in Characteristicks of Men, Manners, Opinions, Times; the latter position by Bernard Mandeville in The Fable of the Bees which was provocatively subtitled “or Private Vices, Publick Benefits.” Hutcheson took Shaftesburys side against Mandeville in this debate.

See the “Images of Liberty” illustrated essay on Shaftesbury’s Illustrations for The Characteristicks of Men.

Titles & Essays

Group by Category
Characteristicks of Men, Manners, Opinions, Times, 3 vols.

Anthony Ashley Cooper, Earl of Shaftesbury (author)

The Liberty Fund edition of Characteristicks presents the complete 1732 text of this classic work of philosophy and political theory. Also included are faithful reproductions of the stirring engravings that Shaftesbury created to…

Characteristicks of Men, Manners, Opinions, Times, vol. 1

Anthony Ashley Cooper, Earl of Shaftesbury (author)

The Liberty Fund edition of Characteristicks presents the complete 1732 text of this classic work of philosophy and political theory. Also included are faithful reproductions of the stirring engravings that Shaftesbury created to…

Characteristicks of Men, Manners, Opinions, Times, vol. 2

Anthony Ashley Cooper, Earl of Shaftesbury (author)

The Liberty Fund edition of Characteristicks presents the complete 1732 text of this classic work of philosophy and political theory. Also included are faithful reproductions of the stirring engravings that Shaftesbury created to…

Characteristicks of Men, Manners, Opinions, Times, vol. 3

Anthony Ashley Cooper, Earl of Shaftesbury (author)

The Liberty Fund edition of Characteristicks presents the complete 1732 text of this classic work of philosophy and political theory. Also included are faithful reproductions of the stirring engravings that Shaftesbury created to…

The Fable of the Bees or Private Vices, Publick Benefits, 2 vols.

Bernard Mandeville (author)

Mandeville is a witty satirist who used a poem to make the profound economic point that “private vices” (or self-interest) lead to “publick benefits” (such as orderly social structures like law, language, and markets).

The Fable of the Bees or Private Vices, Publick Benefits, Vol. 1

Bernard Mandeville (author)

Mandeville is a witty satirist who used a poem to make the profound economic point that “private vices” (or self-interest) lead to “publick benefits” (such as orderly social structures like law, language, and markets).

The Fable of the Bees or Private Vices, Publick Benefits, Vol. 2

Bernard Mandeville (author)

Mandeville is a witty satirist who used a poem to make the profound economic point that “private vices” (or self-interest) lead to “publick benefits” (such as orderly social structures like law, language, and markets).

An Inquiry into the Original of Our Ideas of Beauty and Virtue (1726, 2004)

Francis Hutcheson (author)

A seminal text of the Scottish Enlightenment which was written as a critical response to the work of Bernard Mandeville and as a defense of the ideas of Anthony Ashley Cooper, Lord Shaftesbury. It consists of two treatises exploring…

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