Gisborne (Thomas)
The Principles of Moral Philosophy investigated,
and briefly applied to the constitution of Civil Society: together with Remarks on the Principle assumed by Mr. Paley, as the Basis of All Moral Conclusions, and on other Positions of the same Author.
Description:
FIRST EDITION,
pp. xii, 182, 8vo,
disbound
Publication Details:
Printed by T. Bensley, for E. White and Son, 1789
Notes: 'As a writer, Gisborne was an astute critic of William Paley. His Principles of Moral Philosophy (1789) was the most direct and forcefully argued of evangelical assaults on Paley's utilitarianism. Paley's Principles of Moral and Political Philosophy (1785) had been adopted as a student text at Cambridge and was soon widely read at Oxford. This immensely influential work viewed moral philosophy from a latitudinarian and utilitarian standpoint and was criticized from both the Catholic and the evangelical wings of the Church of England. Gisborne regarded Paley's book as an Erastian work with a ca...more'As a writer, Gisborne was an astute critic of William Paley. His Principles of Moral Philosophy (1789) was the most direct and forcefully argued of evangelical assaults on Paley's utilitarianism. Paley's Principles of Moral and Political Philosophy (1785) had been adopted as a student text at Cambridge and was soon widely read at Oxford. This immensely influential work viewed moral philosophy from a latitudinarian and utilitarian standpoint and was criticized from both the Catholic and the evangelical wings of the Church of England. Gisborne regarded Paley's book as an Erastian work with a calculating, rationalist spirit. Gisborne saw morality as a categorical imperative imposed by God and revealed by him to man in the Bible, not as a human perception of what was expedient. Both Paley and Gisborne were criticized by George Croft, the Bampton lecturer and friend of Lord Eldon in 1797; Paley remained in the Cambridge syllabus for over sixty years, but the evangelical case had been made. As late as the 1830s, Paley's defenders, like Latham Wainewright, still felt the need to address Gisborne's argument' (ODNB).Part II, Chapter VIII is on Slavery, and the previous two, On indemnification, and On Punishment, directly related (these being justifications for slavery). 'Wilberforce was a frequent visitor to Yoxall Lodge [Gisborne's home in Staffordshire] and it was there that much of the work on the anti-slavery campaign was done' (Op. cit.). HIDE
Bibliography: (ESTC T126967)
Enquire about this book
Price: £750
Subject: History
Published Date: 1789
Stock Number: 64976
(Your basket is currently empty)