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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 October 2009
An overview
There is a contemporary report of the occasion of Hutcheson's inaugural lecture by Robert Wodrow (1679–1734), a minister and indefatigable chronicler.
November. Upon the 3rd of this month Mr. Francis Hutcheson was publickly admitted, and had his inaugural discourse. It's in print, and I need say no more of it. He had not time, I knou, to form it, and it's upon a very safe generall subject. I knou he communicat it to Mr. M'Laurin and Mr. Anderson, and som little amendments were made upon it, of no great importance. He delivered it very fast and lou, being a modest man, and it was not well understood. His character and carriage seems prudent and cautious, and that will be the best vidimus of him.
Neither then, nor subsequently, has there been much comment on or discussion of this lecture. One reason is that it was published in Latin, at a time when the lively and fruitful British debate on moral philosophy was predominantly conducted in the vernacular. Also, it would have had a limited circulation, being published in Glasgow, and many of the arguments do of course have counter-parts in other writings by Hutcheson.
It has, however, been observed recently that in this lecture Hutcheson argues more carefully and in greater detail than in his subsequent compend, that is, the Latin and English versions of his Short Introduction to Moral Philosophy, and the posthumously published System of Moral Philosophy.
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