That action is best, which procures the greatest happiness for the greatest numbers.

Francis Hutcheson

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

More information about this quote

Topic

Utilitarianism Moral theory Morality

Author

Francis Hutcheson

Medium

Treatise

Genre

Philosophical literature

Statement Type

Precepts and axioms

Language

English

Time

1725 1720s 18th century

Occupation

Philosopher Writer

From

United Kingdom Europe

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Hutcheson, Francis. An Inquiry into the Original of our Ideas of Beauty and Virtue. London: J. Darby, 1726, treatise 2, sect. 3, subsect. 8.

Current Citation

Hutcheson, Francis. An Inquiry into the Original of Our Ideas of Beauty and Virtue, edited by Wolfgang Leidhold. Liberty Fund, 2008.

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Related Quotes

Below are one or more quotes that share at least one tag with the quote at the top of the page

Another quote from the 1720s

I said there was a society of men among us bred up from their youth in the art of proving by words multiplied for the purpose that white is black and black is white, according as they are paid. To this society all the rest of the people are slaves.

Jonathan Swift

Gulliver's Travels

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Read Gulliver's Travels at Project Gutenberg
More information about this quote
Topic
Lawyers
Speaker
On lawyers.

Author

Jonathan Swift
Source
Gulliver's Travels
Genre
Satire Travel writing
Language
English
Time
1726 1720s 18th century
Authentication Score 3
Original Citation

Swift, Jonathan. Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. In Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and then a Captain of Several Ships. London: Benjamin Motte, 1726, pt. 4, ch. 5.

Current Citation

Swift, Jonathan. Gulliver's Travels, edited by Albert J. Rivero. W. W. Norton & Company, 2001, pt. 4, ch. 5.

Another quote about Moral theory

What is morality in any given time or place? It is what the majority then and there happen to like, and immorality is what they dislike.

More information about this quote
Topic
Moral relativism Moral theory Morality
Speaker
Alfred North Whitehead
Language
English
Time
1941 1940s 20th century
Authentication Score 3
Citation

Whitehead, Alfred North. Dialogues of Alfred North Whitehead, edited by Lucien Price. David. R. Godine, 2008, ch. 22. Originally from dialogue with Lucien Price, 30 Aug. 1941.

Another quote of the following type Precepts and axioms

It is never right to do wrong or to requite wrong with wrong, or when we suffer evil to defend ourselves by doing evil in return.

Socrates

Quoted in Crito, by Plato

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More information about this quote
Topic
Eye for an eye Retaliation Revenge Justice
Speaker
Socrates

Author

Plato
Source
Crito
Medium
Philosophical dialogue
Genre
Philosophical literature
Statement Type
Precepts and axioms
Language
Greek
Time
399 BC 390s BC 4th century BC
Era
Classical antiquity
Authentication Score 2
Original Citation

Plato. Crito. 399 BCE.

Current Citation

Plato. "Crito." Plato: Euthyphro; Apology; Crito; Phaedo, translated by Christopher Emlyn-Jones and William Preddy. Harvard University Press, 2017.