Synopses & Reviews
This volume completes Isabel Rivers' widely-acclaimed exploration of the relationship between religion and ethics from the mid-seventeenth to the later eighteenth centuries. She investigates what happened when attempts were made to separate ethics from religion, and to locate the foundation of morals in the constitution of human nature. Her book pays close attention to the movement of ideas through the British Isles, and demonstrates the enormous influence of Shaftesbury's moral thought. Meticulously researched and accessibly written, this study makes a vital contribution to our understanding of eighteenth-century thought.
Review
"Rivers does an exceptional job.... this richly detailed book makes a substantial contribution to our understanding of the moral philosophy and religious thought of the period." Virginia Quarterly Review
Synopsis
This volume completes a widely acclaimed exploration of religion and ethics in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It investigates attempts to separate ethics from religion, and instead to locate the morals in human nature. Meticulously researched and accessibly written, this study makes a vital contribution to our understanding of eighteenth-century thought.
Table of Contents
Introduction; 1. The true religion of nature: the freethinkers and their opponents; 2. Shaftesbury and the defence of natural affection; 3. Defining the moral faculty: Hutcheson, Butler, and Price; 4. The ethics of sentiment and the religious hypothesis: Hume and his critics; 5. The conflict of languages in the later eighteenth century.