The british moralist (Shaftesbury, Hutchenson and Butler):

- Had a new Aristotelian view of human virtue [Los tres se basaron en la teora aristotlica de la
virtud haciendo algunas adaptaciones en cada caso]
- For them, the concepts of sympathy and benevolence became basic to their moral theories, until
Kant suddenly swept them aside in a theory of ethics that made not only these but every other
variety of emotion, utterly irrelevant [Sirve bastante contrastar estas teoras con la teora de Kant
del imperativo categrico que niega cualquier tipo de emotividad y se basa en la completa
racionalidad de los principios. En el caso de Butler, especficamente, el principio de conciencia
comienza a apartarse del naturalismo]
SHAFTESBURY [106-107 del texto]
For Shaftesbury, there was this problem of defining which was the ruling principle in moral
thought: either reason or sympathy, either the rational or the emotional sphere. Shaftesbury tried to
explore the structure of the human nature from which morality derives and hesitated between the
rational and the emotional. With him there was a shift in emphasis from reason to sympathy as the
ruling principle of moral thought. He was aware of the complexity of the moral and emotional life
of human beings
Shaftesbury found two important truths:
- first, morality is both peculiar to rational beings and also integral to their entire nature,
- secondly, morality has an intimate relation to the emotions, at the heart of which lies mans
perception of his nature as a social being.
HUTCHENSON [pag109]
Recourse to a general theory of benevolence. He argued that the disposition of human beings to
feel pained at each others sufferings and to rejoice at each others delights is, in so far as it exists,
the motivating force behind both the perception of moral qualities and the actions which are
precipitated by it. The disposition to sympathise in these and all the many other ways with which
we are familiar is part of what later philosophers were to call the social nature of humankind
BUTLER [pag 112-113]
Butler accepted that the motivation of a rational being must be understood in terms of a principle of
self knowledge, which takes long term satisfaction and fulfillment into account and which may
overrule the urgings of more specific appetites or desires, Moreover he accepted the view that the
principal objects of this second order [o principio a largo plazo] principle are not particular or
momentary things, but rather general dispositions of character. And he further agreed that, among
these dispositions, benevolence is one of the most, perhaps the single most, important.
However for Butler there is another principle which must be mentioned, the principle of
conscience: the very constitution of our nature requires, that we bring our whole conduct before
this superior faculty, wait its determination, enforce upon ourselves its authority, and make it the
business or our lives, as it is absolutely the whole business of a moral agent, to conform ourselves
to it..and this principle tell us what is good while at the same time motivates us toward the good.
It is a motive that can overcome passion
[In order to make the difference between the first two british moralist and Butler, you should try to
describe with some detail this idea of the principle of conscience]