Lot 594
Hutcheson, Francis
Rare Books, Manuscripts & Photographs
Auction: Rare Books, Manuscripts & Photographss | 10 May 2007
£780
Description
An inquiry into the original of our ideas of beauty and virtue... second edition, corrected and enlarg'd. London: J. Darey, A. Bettesworth [&c.], 1726, 8vo, contemporary panelled calf
Footnote
Note: Hutcheson sets out to demonstrate against Hobbes and Mandeville that altruism cannot ultimately be for the pleasure the benevolent person derives from seeing others happy, since such pleasure presupposes a prior desire that they be happy, hence the "disinterestedness" of benevolence. The first edition was published the previous year. A fine copy.
Provenance: Sir C. Macdonald Lockhart, early inscription on endpaper