0:00:03 > 0:00:06Today, more than ever, the materialism
0:00:06 > 0:00:10and greed of modern society are in question.
0:00:10 > 0:00:14With capitalism in crisis, we are searching for a different way
0:00:14 > 0:00:18to control the drive for riches and the inequalities of society.
0:00:18 > 0:00:21Similar questions arose in the 18th century
0:00:21 > 0:00:26when a society based on exchange and material wealth first evolved.
0:00:26 > 0:00:31This new era of material values provoked critical questions.
0:00:31 > 0:00:35What really motivates human beings, what makes us happy
0:00:35 > 0:00:38and what fundamental rights do we possess,
0:00:38 > 0:00:42and at the centre of all those debates stood one man,
0:00:42 > 0:00:46an Ulster-born philosopher who helped shape the modern world.
0:00:49 > 0:00:53In this film, I'll investigate how his ideas have helped shape
0:00:53 > 0:00:56the United States of America.
0:00:56 > 0:01:00I'll find out how his words have been used worldwide
0:01:00 > 0:01:02in the fight for liberty.
0:01:02 > 0:01:03And back in Ireland,
0:01:03 > 0:01:08I'll uncover his influence on early revolutionary movements.
0:01:09 > 0:01:13Now there are just faded gravestones in this Dublin park,
0:01:13 > 0:01:17but it's believed that there's a visionary buried here.
0:01:17 > 0:01:22Someone whose ideas helped shape the modern world. Francis Hutcheson.
0:01:22 > 0:01:26Today, we take it for granted that we are all born equal
0:01:26 > 0:01:29and that we have fundamental human rights.
0:01:29 > 0:01:33But 300 years ago, those ideas had to be fought for.
0:01:33 > 0:01:36And Hutcheson was right at the centre of the battle.
0:01:36 > 0:01:40Francis Hutcheson, I think, is a figure whose influence
0:01:40 > 0:01:45upon the modern world is much underappreciated.
0:01:45 > 0:01:48Hutcheson's influence has been seismic.
0:01:48 > 0:01:51He is undoubtedly one of those great thinkers who has been lost
0:01:51 > 0:01:57and should be recovered and there should be more study of his work, there's no question about that.
0:01:59 > 0:02:05Today, with great upheavals around the world, we'll reveal how
0:02:05 > 0:02:09Francis Hutcheson's ideas are as relevant as they have ever been.
0:02:09 > 0:02:14And at a time of economic crisis, fractured communities
0:02:14 > 0:02:18and deep unhappiness, we will see how the ideas of Francis Hutcheson
0:02:18 > 0:02:24300 years after his death can shed light on our modern problems.
0:02:35 > 0:02:39In the 1600s, civil war and rebellion swept through
0:02:39 > 0:02:44the British Isles, with Protestants establishing their dominance.
0:02:45 > 0:02:49Ireland at the end of the 17th century had been
0:02:49 > 0:02:52devastated by decades of religious conflict.
0:02:52 > 0:02:57The basic realities of Irish life were sectarian hatred,
0:02:57 > 0:03:03economic crisis and colonial subordination to England.
0:03:03 > 0:03:06This is the world Francis Hutcheson was born into
0:03:06 > 0:03:10here in Saintfield, County Down.
0:03:11 > 0:03:17Francis Hutcheson came from a line of Scottish Presbyterian ministers.
0:03:17 > 0:03:20His grandfather had come to Ulster to minister to Scots settlers,
0:03:20 > 0:03:26preaching at a church in Saintfield. Francis' father, John Hutcheson,
0:03:26 > 0:03:30also became a minister in County Down.
0:03:30 > 0:03:33I think John Hutcheson was a reasonably strict
0:03:33 > 0:03:35and Orthodox Presbyterian minister.
0:03:35 > 0:03:40He was deeply committed to his faith, I think, that's very clear.
0:03:40 > 0:03:43And that's something which I think the young Francis embowered,
0:03:43 > 0:03:46is a commitment to religious thought, as such.
0:03:48 > 0:03:50At this time,
0:03:50 > 0:03:54Presbyterian ministers in Ireland preached the doctrines of Calvinism.
0:03:56 > 0:04:00The doctrines of Calvinism strike most of us today
0:04:00 > 0:04:03as unbearably harsh and depressing.
0:04:03 > 0:04:08Everyone of us is fallen, worthless in the eyes of the Lord.
0:04:08 > 0:04:12God is absolute sovereign and God alone decides which of us
0:04:12 > 0:04:15will be saved and which of us will be damned.
0:04:15 > 0:04:20And, what's more, he's decided all of this before we were even born.
0:04:20 > 0:04:25So however virtuous your actions, however blameless your life,
0:04:25 > 0:04:28you might still end up facing eternal punishment.
0:04:30 > 0:04:34Although Presbyterians did attend church in certain areas,
0:04:34 > 0:04:39it was technically illegal for them to worship because at the beginning
0:04:39 > 0:04:44of the 18th century, the Anglican Church of Ireland had firm control,
0:04:44 > 0:04:49stamping down on both Catholics and dissenters like Presbyterians.
0:04:52 > 0:04:55Francis was born in an age of religious intolerance,
0:04:55 > 0:04:58an age when all power is concentrated in a single
0:04:58 > 0:05:03established church, which excluded people like Francis and his family.
0:05:03 > 0:05:08Not only that, but his own Presbyterian Church with its strict Calvinist creed
0:05:08 > 0:05:12really stamped on any sign of independent thought.
0:05:12 > 0:05:18So our modern notions of liberty, equality and democracy
0:05:18 > 0:05:22are a million miles away from the world in which Francis grew up.
0:05:24 > 0:05:25Aged eight years old,
0:05:25 > 0:05:29Francis attended a small school in Saintfield.
0:05:31 > 0:05:35As well as a father and grandfather who were Presbyterian ministers,
0:05:35 > 0:05:41he had an elder brother who was not as academically gifted as Francis.
0:05:41 > 0:05:46# When you were young, you were the king of carrot flowers
0:05:46 > 0:05:52# And how you built a tower tumbling through the trees. #
0:05:52 > 0:05:56Francis was a gifted child and so his grandfather adored him,
0:05:56 > 0:05:59rather overlooking his elder brother, Hans.
0:05:59 > 0:06:02Francis was deeply pained by this favouritism
0:06:02 > 0:06:04and he did everything he could think of
0:06:04 > 0:06:08to try and make sure that the two brothers received equal treatment.
0:06:08 > 0:06:10So even at this early age,
0:06:10 > 0:06:14Francis' belief in equality was beginning to show.
0:06:19 > 0:06:21When Francis' grandfather died,
0:06:21 > 0:06:24he left money for his favourite grandchild's education.
0:06:24 > 0:06:28Back then, the only university in Ireland was Trinity College Dublin.
0:06:28 > 0:06:32But being under the control of the established church,
0:06:32 > 0:06:36Trinity refused to admit Presbyterian students.
0:06:36 > 0:06:40Instead, Francis had to be sent to university in Scotland.
0:06:40 > 0:06:42To prepare for this,
0:06:42 > 0:06:45he attended a Presbyterian Academy at Killala, County Down.
0:06:47 > 0:06:50To find out about the demanding education Hutcheson received,
0:06:50 > 0:06:53I've come to see the only remaining artefact
0:06:53 > 0:06:56from Francis' early 18th-century school.
0:06:59 > 0:07:01So this looks like a very interesting document,
0:07:01 > 0:07:03but what exactly is it?
0:07:03 > 0:07:06Well, it is a unique record about the Killala Academy.
0:07:06 > 0:07:08It's the student notebook of John King,
0:07:08 > 0:07:12who was a student there for two years, from 1710 to 1712.
0:07:12 > 0:07:16And that's the immediate two years after Francis Hutcheson's left.
0:07:16 > 0:07:20We can be pretty sure, 99%, the notes in here are the notes Hutcheson would also have taken.
0:07:20 > 0:07:23It's the same course, exactly the same time,
0:07:23 > 0:07:25exactly the same subjects.
0:07:25 > 0:07:29Now this academy was actually illegal, wasn't it?
0:07:29 > 0:07:35In the eyes of the law, yes, but in County Down, there were so many Presbyterians, they got away with it.
0:07:35 > 0:07:39The Presbyterians were always able to organise their own communities
0:07:39 > 0:07:43where they were strong and where they were the dominant group,
0:07:43 > 0:07:49- they could basically do as they pleased.- What was the attitude of the establishment to that?
0:07:49 > 0:07:52The establishment hated these academies.
0:07:52 > 0:07:57They are illegal and they would rant about why the government weren't doing something about them.
0:07:57 > 0:08:00What's the importance of this for Francis Hutcheson?
0:08:00 > 0:08:05This gives us an indication of how it worked for them.
0:08:05 > 0:08:09The logic, main points, sub points, some points of the sub points,
0:08:09 > 0:08:12they went through from this to learning Scripture
0:08:12 > 0:08:17and theology and then very often the sermons reflected this approach.
0:08:17 > 0:08:20You could have a one-hour sermon with one main point with five sub points
0:08:20 > 0:08:23and three sub points of each of the five sub points.
0:08:23 > 0:08:26It's kind of dry, logical and methodical.
0:08:26 > 0:08:29That's the style in the early 18th century.
0:08:29 > 0:08:33- That doesn't sound much like Francis Hutcheson.- He kicked against this.
0:08:33 > 0:08:39He kicked against this over-organisation and the dogmatism of the theology,
0:08:39 > 0:08:42particularly things like the universal sin
0:08:42 > 0:08:46and the idea there is absolutely nothing good in any human being.
0:08:46 > 0:08:49He did not accept that. And got into trouble for that.
0:08:51 > 0:08:53Francis' hard work at school
0:08:53 > 0:08:57enabled him to enter Glasgow University at the age of 17.
0:08:57 > 0:08:58In Scotland, unlike Ireland,
0:08:58 > 0:09:01Presbyterianism was the established religion,
0:09:01 > 0:09:05but the Church was dominated by hardliners who were intolerant
0:09:05 > 0:09:10of other faiths and resented government interference.
0:09:10 > 0:09:13Just over a decade earlier,
0:09:13 > 0:09:17a student had been hanged in Scotland for mocking the Scriptures.
0:09:17 > 0:09:19It was a warning to students and lecturers
0:09:19 > 0:09:22that they had to tread carefully.
0:09:22 > 0:09:28When Hutcheson arrived in Glasgow, as a student, he was taught
0:09:28 > 0:09:31by a newly appointed professor,
0:09:31 > 0:09:34John Simpson, who was the professor of theology.
0:09:34 > 0:09:36The thing about John Simpson
0:09:36 > 0:09:41was that he was the most famous of the Presbyterian moderates.
0:09:41 > 0:09:45He really did believe in toleration, he did believe in reason,
0:09:45 > 0:09:50he did believe in that church and state should be able to coexist.
0:09:50 > 0:09:52The trouble was he loved a fight.
0:09:54 > 0:09:58Hutcheson's radical teacher eventually lost his job.
0:09:58 > 0:10:02But Francis had already been exposed to new ideas.
0:10:02 > 0:10:07After graduating, he returned to fresh challenges in Ireland.
0:10:07 > 0:10:12Now a grown man, Hutcheson had great magnetism.
0:10:12 > 0:10:17He was described as "A man of fair and somewhat florid complexion.
0:10:17 > 0:10:20"His forehead is remarkably capacious.
0:10:20 > 0:10:24"His eyebrows, lips and dark blue eyes peculiar expressive
0:10:24 > 0:10:27"and every feature of his countenance
0:10:27 > 0:10:31"indicative of good temper and intelligence."
0:10:31 > 0:10:35I think that, first and foremost, he was a tolerant individual,
0:10:35 > 0:10:38by which I don't merely mean that he was willing to put up
0:10:38 > 0:10:41with people's vagaries and their idiosyncrasies.
0:10:41 > 0:10:46I think he was genuinely curious about the variety of human life.
0:10:46 > 0:10:50In his writings, he's regularly talking about
0:10:50 > 0:10:52the common reader, the common person.
0:10:52 > 0:10:56He describes how moral philosophers often have less insight
0:10:56 > 0:10:59than the beggar on the street.
0:11:03 > 0:11:08But Hutcheson's temper was to be tested by the Presbyterian community,
0:11:08 > 0:11:10where there was considerable infighting.
0:11:13 > 0:11:17Ministers and congregations now divided into two camps.
0:11:17 > 0:11:21As the more traditional, or Old Light Presbyterians,
0:11:21 > 0:11:24denounced those they called New Light.
0:11:24 > 0:11:26What was new about the New Light
0:11:26 > 0:11:30was that they emphasised the human capacity for goodness.
0:11:30 > 0:11:33They also defended the right of individuals
0:11:33 > 0:11:35to interpret the Bible for themselves.
0:11:35 > 0:11:38Neither church nor state, they believed,
0:11:38 > 0:11:43had the authority to dictate your religious beliefs.
0:11:46 > 0:11:50For Hutcheson, the conflict became very personal.
0:11:50 > 0:11:53His father was an Old Light Presbyterian
0:11:53 > 0:11:59but Francis, having been exposed to many new ideas at university, was a New Light.
0:12:00 > 0:12:03The Hutchesons were divided.
0:12:03 > 0:12:08On his return from Scotland, Francis, now licensed as a minister,
0:12:08 > 0:12:12deputised for his father one Sunday at Armagh.
0:12:12 > 0:12:18But a member of the congregation complained of his liberal interpretation of the Gospel,
0:12:18 > 0:12:24telling his father, "Your silly loon Frank has fashed all the congregation with his idle cackle.
0:12:24 > 0:12:27"For he's been babbling this hour about the good
0:12:27 > 0:12:31"and benevolent God and that the souls of the heathen themselves
0:12:31 > 0:12:34"go to heaven if they follow their own consciences.
0:12:34 > 0:12:39"Not a word does the daft boy ken or say about the good old comfortable doctrines o' election,
0:12:39 > 0:12:42"reprobation, original sin and faith."
0:12:44 > 0:12:48Ascribe to the Lord, O mighty ones, ascribe to the Lord,
0:12:48 > 0:12:50glory and strength.
0:12:50 > 0:12:54The Reverend Tony Davidson is a successor to Francis' father
0:12:54 > 0:12:57at Armagh First Presbyterian Church.
0:12:57 > 0:13:02- CONGREGATION: - The voice of the Lord is powerful. The voice of the Lord is majestic.
0:13:02 > 0:13:07Francis came here to preach as a young man and he went down like a lead balloon.
0:13:07 > 0:13:12- Why was that?- Well, he came from a different place from his dad.
0:13:12 > 0:13:14His dad was a rigid Calvinist,
0:13:14 > 0:13:20brought up with that sort of education, and that's what the people wanted.
0:13:20 > 0:13:23Whereas he had had a different education in Glasgow.
0:13:23 > 0:13:26He was one of the New Light, became a founder of it.
0:13:26 > 0:13:31And came and preached and, of course, not everybody appreciated it.
0:13:31 > 0:13:35What was the reaction of the congregation to Francis?
0:13:35 > 0:13:41Three people liked it. They stayed. The rest of the congregation left.
0:13:41 > 0:13:43They felt that if they didn't agree with the man,
0:13:43 > 0:13:47even if he was a college kid and he got his degree, they walked out.
0:13:47 > 0:13:52They were used to certain words and he didn't use those particular words.
0:13:52 > 0:13:58It didn't trigger the usual response and so they walked out.
0:13:58 > 0:14:03This conflict must have produced an awkward family situation?
0:14:03 > 0:14:07It's fascinating, isn't it? And that's why the story is so powerful.
0:14:07 > 0:14:11Here you have a father with one view and a son with the other.
0:14:11 > 0:14:13And it makes for a fascinating story.
0:14:13 > 0:14:16You wonder what on earth they said to each other afterwards.
0:14:16 > 0:14:20What do you think the impact of his Armagh experience would have been
0:14:20 > 0:14:26- on Francis?- He's only 24. He's just been licensed.
0:14:26 > 0:14:29He hasn't probably preached a lot.
0:14:29 > 0:14:34Any of us who have preached know that if everybody walks out and there's only three left,
0:14:34 > 0:14:37you would wonder about going back and preaching there. Definitely.
0:14:37 > 0:14:41You might think of a different direction, which is what, in fact, he did.
0:14:43 > 0:14:46# You better run
0:14:47 > 0:14:49# Yes, you better run. #
0:14:49 > 0:14:54Francis was to give his father further concerns.
0:14:54 > 0:15:00Deciding his future didn't lie in preaching, Francis moved to the bright lights of Dublin.
0:15:00 > 0:15:02# You better run
0:15:02 > 0:15:07# Yes, you better run to the city on the river
0:15:07 > 0:15:08# Yeah, you better run
0:15:08 > 0:15:11# You better run
0:15:11 > 0:15:14# You better run to the city on the river... #
0:15:14 > 0:15:18One of Hutcheson's complaints about previous philosophers
0:15:18 > 0:15:21was that they were dour and morose.
0:15:21 > 0:15:24By contrast, Hutcheson's private correspondence
0:15:24 > 0:15:29reveals a very convivial and clubbable personality with a playful sense of humour.
0:15:29 > 0:15:32As an overworked university professor,
0:15:32 > 0:15:38he reminisced with his Irish friends about days spent sauntering through the bookshops of Dublin
0:15:38 > 0:15:42and nights spent drinking into the small hours.
0:15:47 > 0:15:52Hutcheson's charm became useful when he was hired to run a prominent academy for Presbyterian Dissenters.
0:15:54 > 0:15:57It was a dangerous position to hold at a time
0:15:57 > 0:16:01when Presbyterians were legally barred from public office.
0:16:01 > 0:16:04So Hutcheson came to Dublin around 1720.
0:16:04 > 0:16:07What was the world of Dublin Dissent like at that time?
0:16:07 > 0:16:11The Dissenters in Dublin had long been banned from Trinity College
0:16:11 > 0:16:13and were very anxious to get a university
0:16:13 > 0:16:15so they could train their ministers.
0:16:15 > 0:16:20And they heard of the great Francis Hutcheson's career in Glasgow
0:16:20 > 0:16:26as a student and they invited him here about 1719 or 1720.
0:16:26 > 0:16:30How hostile was the environment for somebody trying to set up
0:16:30 > 0:16:32a dissenting academy?
0:16:32 > 0:16:35It was a very risky thing for Hutcheson to do,
0:16:35 > 0:16:39to come and open a school in the hostile environment.
0:16:39 > 0:16:44There was every possibility that school would have been
0:16:44 > 0:16:49closed down and Hutcheson prosecuted for attempting it.
0:16:49 > 0:16:50But that didn't happen.
0:16:50 > 0:16:56Some people say it didn't happen because Hutcheson became friendly with Archbishop William King,
0:16:56 > 0:17:00the sort of main man of the established church
0:17:00 > 0:17:03in Dublin at the time, who regarded Hutcheson as a great scholar.
0:17:03 > 0:17:05In fact, they became friends.
0:17:05 > 0:17:10And that protected him and the school from persecution.
0:17:10 > 0:17:12But it was a sort of a close-run thing.
0:17:12 > 0:17:15Of course, then his father became very concerned
0:17:15 > 0:17:19when he heard how friendly Hutcheson had become with the Archbishop
0:17:19 > 0:17:23and that the Archbishop had been offering bribes to Hutcheson,
0:17:23 > 0:17:26or as they said great preferment, if he would change his religion.
0:17:26 > 0:17:31Hutcheson had to write to his father, assuring him he would not be joining the established church.
0:17:35 > 0:17:40Francis risked further danger by developing his own ideas
0:17:40 > 0:17:42that could be considered heretical.
0:17:43 > 0:17:46He tried to examine philosophical concepts,
0:17:46 > 0:17:50in terms of the day-to-day ways we see things.
0:17:50 > 0:17:54This is another radical departure from previous philosophers,
0:17:54 > 0:17:57who ignored the role of human perception.
0:18:08 > 0:18:12We think of psychology as a quintessentially modern preoccupation.
0:18:12 > 0:18:18Countless magazines promise to unlock the secrets of human nature.
0:18:18 > 0:18:22But there's nothing new in this. Three centuries ago,
0:18:22 > 0:18:28Francis Hutcheson began to map out our complex emotional world.
0:18:28 > 0:18:31He was one of the very first people to do this.
0:18:33 > 0:18:39The 16th and 17th centuries saw huge developments in art and science.
0:18:39 > 0:18:43Learning was encouraged by observation and experiment.
0:18:43 > 0:18:46Philosophers began to ask questions about human nature.
0:18:46 > 0:18:51According to 17th-century philosopher Thomas Hobbes,
0:18:51 > 0:18:55a human being is a sophisticated organism,
0:18:55 > 0:19:00all of whose functions can be explained like a machine.
0:19:00 > 0:19:05Even the way we think can be understood as a basic physical process.
0:19:06 > 0:19:11Hobbes really reduces all human behaviour to crude appetites
0:19:11 > 0:19:14and desires, as basic as the need to eat.
0:19:14 > 0:19:18It's all about maximising pleasure and avoiding pain.
0:19:19 > 0:19:23Hobbes' world is an amoral world in which all human action
0:19:23 > 0:19:26is rooted in self-interest.
0:19:26 > 0:19:30And the inevitable result is that we come into competition
0:19:30 > 0:19:34and therefore conflict with others.
0:19:37 > 0:19:41Hobbes influenced Dutch philosopher Bernard Mandeville
0:19:41 > 0:19:47who proposed how such a selfish society would work.
0:19:47 > 0:19:51He described a bee colony that survives through the personal gain of each bee.
0:19:52 > 0:19:56He thought that a working system for the public good only thrives
0:19:56 > 0:20:01on the selfish actions of individuals.
0:20:01 > 0:20:06Greed, he thought, is what drives society, as many people still believe today.
0:20:06 > 0:20:11One of Hutcheson's main motivations was to distance himself
0:20:11 > 0:20:15from what he saw as the selfish schools, the selfish school
0:20:15 > 0:20:19of morality, which he associated with Hobbes and then with Mandeville.
0:20:19 > 0:20:24He saw Hobbes as having reduced morality to self-interest.
0:20:24 > 0:20:27We don't act in a moral way again because we want to act in a moral way
0:20:27 > 0:20:31for its own sake, but because we think it will serve our interests.
0:20:31 > 0:20:35Mandeville was perhaps more of a polemicist than Hobbes,
0:20:35 > 0:20:39but they both argued positions that people find deeply antagonistic
0:20:39 > 0:20:42and yet persuasive at the same time.
0:20:42 > 0:20:46We have to find a way around them, which is not easy to do
0:20:46 > 0:20:48in this period. It takes a lot of dexterity.
0:20:53 > 0:20:56In Hutcheson's time, the long-established power structures
0:20:56 > 0:21:00of monarchy and aristocracy were being challenged.
0:21:00 > 0:21:05A new order was emerging where more power lay in exchange
0:21:05 > 0:21:07and material wealth.
0:21:07 > 0:21:11In a more consumerist and individualistic society,
0:21:11 > 0:21:15the question of what motivates people was as timely as ever.
0:21:15 > 0:21:20Horrified by Hobbes and Mandeville's bleak view of human nature,
0:21:20 > 0:21:24Hutcheson set out to refute it.
0:21:24 > 0:21:26He wanted to unravel what it is that allows us
0:21:26 > 0:21:31to get on with the other people we come into contact with.
0:21:32 > 0:21:35These issues of desire and morality were on his mind
0:21:35 > 0:21:39when Francis fell in love.
0:21:40 > 0:21:45Aged 30, he married Miss Mary Wilson from County Longford.
0:21:47 > 0:21:50During their courtship, Francis was hard at work
0:21:50 > 0:21:55on his first publication, his Inquiry Into Beauty And Virtue.
0:21:55 > 0:21:58Here is one of the things he has to tell us.
0:21:58 > 0:22:04"Love itself," he says, "is what gives beauty to the lover.
0:22:04 > 0:22:07"And this is the strongest charm possible.
0:22:07 > 0:22:12"The one that exerts the greatest power over us."
0:22:12 > 0:22:18And the argument of the book is that morality works like beauty and love.
0:22:18 > 0:22:23It's based not on reason, but on spontaneous feeling.
0:22:23 > 0:22:27I think Hutcheson's marriage in the year of the writings
0:22:27 > 0:22:31of the inquiry certainly may have shared some of his philosophical
0:22:31 > 0:22:35thinking at that juncture where you fall in love with somebody
0:22:35 > 0:22:39and then you have to sit down and work out why this might be so
0:22:39 > 0:22:41and what their good qualities are.
0:22:41 > 0:22:46You're taken in by somebody before you rationally commit to them.
0:22:46 > 0:22:48In that sense, he set aside self-interest
0:22:48 > 0:22:52and simply falls in love with who he's fallen in love with.
0:22:52 > 0:22:55I think there is some parallel of his philosophical writings at this point
0:22:55 > 0:22:58and his changing domestic circumstance.
0:22:58 > 0:23:03The problem with the rational approach to morality is that -
0:23:03 > 0:23:08I know what I ought to do, but there's nothing in me that makes me do it.
0:23:08 > 0:23:12And the brilliant thing that Hutcheson did was to explain
0:23:12 > 0:23:15why morality motivates. It motivates because it's a passion,
0:23:15 > 0:23:21because it's a feeling, and we are animals, motivated by desires.
0:23:21 > 0:23:24Morality is a kind of desire and that's why it moves us.
0:23:26 > 0:23:29But if morality was a passion, a feeling,
0:23:29 > 0:23:36the question remained for Hutcheson, how can we be objectively certain about what is good and evil?
0:23:39 > 0:23:43He was engaged in a long-running quest for moral certainty.
0:23:43 > 0:23:47That's to say, how is it that we can know that what we think
0:23:47 > 0:23:52is right and wrong is really right and wrong and not just a matter of subjective opinion?
0:23:52 > 0:23:57And his answer was to say that we had a moral sense, that is we had,
0:23:57 > 0:24:03just like our other senses of seeing or hearing or tasting,
0:24:03 > 0:24:08we have a moral sense that picks out real moral qualities in actions
0:24:08 > 0:24:11and characters in the world.
0:24:11 > 0:24:18Just as I see a tree or a butterfly and because I see it,
0:24:18 > 0:24:23I know that it's there, so when I see virtue, I know it.
0:24:25 > 0:24:31The ability for individuals to perceive moral qualities was a radical idea for its time.
0:24:31 > 0:24:36This was an age when there was little freedom and few people even had the vote.
0:24:36 > 0:24:40But according to Hutcheson's moral theory,
0:24:40 > 0:24:43God has made all of us capable of moral judgement.
0:24:43 > 0:24:49It isn't up to the Bible or the king or the government to tell us what is right or wrong.
0:24:49 > 0:24:55God has given all of us the right to use our own moral sense.
0:24:55 > 0:25:00For Hutcheson, the idea of rights came from the nature of human beings
0:25:00 > 0:25:03themselves and that every person had a moral sense,
0:25:03 > 0:25:06so that regardless of their upbringing or culture,
0:25:06 > 0:25:10they could still recognise beyond those sort of limitations
0:25:10 > 0:25:14that there were certain things
0:25:14 > 0:25:19that were owed to human beings by virtue of being human in itself.
0:25:19 > 0:25:25Then it didn't matter whether you were a commoner or an aristocrat when it came to appearing in court,
0:25:25 > 0:25:28you were treated in exactly the same way.
0:25:28 > 0:25:33In that sense, I think you can see there is a certain egalitarianism
0:25:33 > 0:25:39that starts to flow out of Hutcheson's idea of human nature and human rights.
0:25:41 > 0:25:44The moral sense had led Hutcheson to a vision of equality
0:25:44 > 0:25:48and human rights for all, a subversive position to hold.
0:25:48 > 0:25:54In 1725, his first book, An Inquiry Into Beauty And Virtue,
0:25:54 > 0:25:55was published.
0:25:55 > 0:25:58Perhaps it was the boldness of the ideas
0:25:58 > 0:26:02that led the wily Hutcheson to publish it anonymously.
0:26:02 > 0:26:08Hutcheson would have been worried about the kind of democratic quality
0:26:08 > 0:26:11of his idea of the moral sense on two grounds.
0:26:11 > 0:26:16One of which is that it rallied against the political structures
0:26:16 > 0:26:19of the day, to some degree.
0:26:19 > 0:26:23The politics of 18th-century Ireland was very hierarchically organised.
0:26:23 > 0:26:25So there's that side to it.
0:26:25 > 0:26:29The other side to the radicalism of Hutcheson's thought
0:26:29 > 0:26:34about the moral sense is the human optimism that he brings to it.
0:26:34 > 0:26:39The idea that we all are morally capable
0:26:39 > 0:26:43and that we are able to improve ourselves runs against the strand
0:26:43 > 0:26:48of traditional Presbyterian thought that understood human beings
0:26:48 > 0:26:52as essentially reprobate and saved by God's grace.
0:26:52 > 0:26:56Hutcheson, I think, comes to these convictions as a relatively young man
0:26:56 > 0:26:59and he has the courage that young people have
0:26:59 > 0:27:04when they are articulating new moral positions. And a lot of people in the Presbyterian traditional
0:27:04 > 0:27:09resist what he is saying and even in the 19th century when people looking back on Hutcheson,
0:27:09 > 0:27:12they are rather alarmed at some of the things he has had to say.
0:27:12 > 0:27:15He remains controversial long after his time.
0:27:15 > 0:27:20Hutcheson's achievement shouldn't be underestimated in these terms.
0:27:20 > 0:27:26Hutcheson's bold writings caught the eye of an unlikely admirer in Dublin.
0:27:28 > 0:27:33In the 1720s, King George I's personal representative in Ireland
0:27:33 > 0:27:37was Lord Carteret, who resided at Dublin Castle.
0:27:37 > 0:27:41Despite being an establishment figure,
0:27:41 > 0:27:44Carteret was open to new and different ideas.
0:27:46 > 0:27:50The Lord-Lieutenant went to the lengths of tracking down Hutcheson
0:27:50 > 0:27:54through his publisher and invited him here
0:27:54 > 0:28:00to Dublin Castle, the seat of British rule in Ireland.
0:28:00 > 0:28:04Hutcheson was now rubbing shoulders with the political and social elite.
0:28:04 > 0:28:06He was an outsider,
0:28:06 > 0:28:10someone who'd moved from the world of second-class citizens
0:28:10 > 0:28:13to the glamour and power of the establishment.
0:28:14 > 0:28:18A rumour spread that Carteret had offered Hutcheson
0:28:18 > 0:28:21an establishment job in Dublin.
0:28:21 > 0:28:27But Hutcheson would have to become an Anglican to take such a prominent post.
0:28:27 > 0:28:31His father was aghast at the thought.
0:28:31 > 0:28:34Yes, his father was deeply concerned about the possibility
0:28:34 > 0:28:37of Hutcheson converting. I think the father was concerned
0:28:37 > 0:28:42because he could imagine how a young man working in Dublin,
0:28:42 > 0:28:48suddenly coming into a large city, in 18th-century terms,
0:28:48 > 0:28:53and finding himself fraternised by people of political clout
0:28:53 > 0:28:56might well have their head turned
0:28:56 > 0:29:00and think that this is a road forward to influence and prosperity.
0:29:05 > 0:29:07Hutcheson resisted temptation.
0:29:07 > 0:29:11Instead, in 1730, he was elected to the Chair of Moral Philosophy
0:29:11 > 0:29:16at Glasgow University by just one vote.
0:29:16 > 0:29:19At only 35 years old, he was rapidly becoming
0:29:19 > 0:29:23one of the most influential philosophers in Scotland.
0:29:23 > 0:29:27And soon, he became known for his radical new ways of teaching.
0:29:29 > 0:29:32Later generations dated the beginning
0:29:32 > 0:29:36of the Scottish Enlightenment from Hutcheson's appointment at Glasgow.
0:29:36 > 0:29:38His lecture notes still survive.
0:29:38 > 0:29:42And they begin by telling us that the point of moral philosophy
0:29:42 > 0:29:46is to promote our greatest happiness and perfection.
0:29:46 > 0:29:51One very simple innovation is that Hutcheson said this in English,
0:29:51 > 0:29:55rather than Latin, as all his predecessors had done.
0:29:55 > 0:30:01It's nicely symbolic of his determination to modernise university life.
0:30:01 > 0:30:06But it also enabled him to develop the famously dynamic lecturing style
0:30:06 > 0:30:09that appealed to students not just in Scotland,
0:30:09 > 0:30:12but throughout the British Isles.
0:30:12 > 0:30:15There's no question that Hutcheson was an inspiring figure.
0:30:15 > 0:30:21I think his testimony by students, the students' notes, their memoirs, their defences of him,
0:30:21 > 0:30:24the way that his reputation spread, the fact that people wanted
0:30:24 > 0:30:27to acknowledge him, even when they disagreed with him.
0:30:27 > 0:30:33By all accounts, Hutcheson was an incredibly charismatic teacher.
0:30:33 > 0:30:38He lectured without notes, walking around the room as he spoke.
0:30:38 > 0:30:42His eloquence and energy were legendary.
0:30:47 > 0:30:49Francis Hutcheson was counsellor
0:30:49 > 0:30:54and mentor to many of his Ulster Presbyterians students,
0:30:54 > 0:30:58who were known to locals as the Wild Irish Taigs.
0:30:58 > 0:31:01In keeping with his New Light ideas about human nature,
0:31:01 > 0:31:05Hutcheson firmly believed people were naturally benevolent.
0:31:08 > 0:31:11# And I've run out of pale ale
0:31:11 > 0:31:14# And I feel like I'm in jail... #
0:31:15 > 0:31:18Francis Hutcheson believed in human goodness,
0:31:18 > 0:31:23that acts of benevolence like giving to charity are instinctive.
0:31:23 > 0:31:27The moral sense propels us to act with generosity towards others
0:31:27 > 0:31:32and this is hardwired into every one of us.
0:31:32 > 0:31:35What's more, we get a sort of pleasure out of this,
0:31:35 > 0:31:39a natural positive feeling results, quite beyond our conscious control.
0:31:42 > 0:31:47Benevolence was the core model concept for Hutcheson.
0:31:47 > 0:31:51While the Hutchesonian optimistic view of the world
0:31:51 > 0:31:53has fallen greatly out of favour
0:31:53 > 0:31:57and we need only to look at our news screens every night to see why
0:31:57 > 0:32:04that might be, he hasn't lost the argument and we need only to look
0:32:04 > 0:32:08at figures like Nelson Mandela or Aung San Suu Kyi to think of people
0:32:08 > 0:32:13who do act out of genuinely selfless considerations.
0:32:14 > 0:32:18Hutcheson was interested not just in how individuals
0:32:18 > 0:32:24can look after each other, but how the government can enable people to live good lives.
0:32:24 > 0:32:29After the religious and political crises of the recent past,
0:32:29 > 0:32:33Hutcheson wanted to explore how societies could be held together.
0:32:33 > 0:32:38# The word is about, there's something evolving... #
0:32:41 > 0:32:47It was a critical question at a time of massive upheaval.
0:32:47 > 0:32:52Scotland was on the verge of becoming an economic powerhouse.
0:32:52 > 0:32:56There is an anxiety that in Enlightenment Scotland,
0:32:56 > 0:32:58rising commerce, rising wealth,
0:32:58 > 0:33:01rising trade with Britain's new empire,
0:33:01 > 0:33:05will somehow corrupt individuals, will make individuals turned towards
0:33:05 > 0:33:09their own selfish interests and so Hutcheson's theories can suggest -
0:33:09 > 0:33:14actually, while individuals may want to buy a nice silver teapot,
0:33:14 > 0:33:18they may want to take part in an increasingly globalised Atlantic economy,
0:33:18 > 0:33:23they won't be in a Hobbesian state of nature where each man or woman
0:33:23 > 0:33:26is fighting for their own individual interests,
0:33:26 > 0:33:30their own wealth, because somehow there is a cut-off mechanism
0:33:30 > 0:33:34and that cut off mechanism that can stop this Hobbesian state of nature,
0:33:34 > 0:33:37this Hobbesian nightmare in a commercialising world,
0:33:37 > 0:33:39is the innate moral sense.
0:33:44 > 0:33:48Hutcheson thought the key role for government was to enable people
0:33:48 > 0:33:52to flourish and live together through their moral sense.
0:33:52 > 0:33:55Such a society would then be one
0:33:55 > 0:34:00that achieved the greatest happiness of the greatest number.
0:34:00 > 0:34:06This famous maxim was reiterated by a group called the Utilitarians some 40 years later.
0:34:09 > 0:34:13One crucial legacy that Hutcheson has left us with
0:34:13 > 0:34:18is the fundamental utilitarian principle that the greatest good
0:34:18 > 0:34:23is the greatest happiness of the greatest number of people.
0:34:23 > 0:34:28And that fundamental idea that that's what politics ought to be about,
0:34:28 > 0:34:32achieving the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people,
0:34:32 > 0:34:36is something that has remained with us
0:34:36 > 0:34:39since the 18th century and still guides politics today.
0:34:43 > 0:34:47Hutcheson believed that bringing about happiness is achieved
0:34:47 > 0:34:53through governments allowing individuals to make their own decisions through the moral sense.
0:34:54 > 0:34:58Hutchesonian benevolence, you could argue,
0:34:58 > 0:35:02is key to the rhetoric of the big society,
0:35:02 > 0:35:08in as much as the church, the university, the school,
0:35:08 > 0:35:13the local foundation, are benevolent institutions,
0:35:13 > 0:35:17but these institutions can only be benevolent if they give voice
0:35:17 > 0:35:21and access to individuals on the local level.
0:35:21 > 0:35:25We might be able to see echoes of Hutcheson,
0:35:25 > 0:35:29or at least something Hutchesonian, in David Cameron's big society.
0:35:30 > 0:35:35In as much as the big society in its rhetoric likes to suggest
0:35:35 > 0:35:42that each individual deserves to have power devolved to him or her.
0:35:43 > 0:35:45The potent intertwining of political
0:35:45 > 0:35:50and religious power was also examined by Hutcheson.
0:35:50 > 0:35:54When he was a student, his teacher had been accused of heresy.
0:35:54 > 0:35:58And just years before, a student had been hanged.
0:35:58 > 0:36:00Now, Hutcheson was to experience
0:36:00 > 0:36:03the iron fist of religious authority for himself.
0:36:05 > 0:36:10As a Glasgow professor, Hutcheson had to tread carefully
0:36:10 > 0:36:14because the local authorities were watching vigilantly for any sign
0:36:14 > 0:36:20that this Irishman might infect their students with New Light ideas.
0:36:20 > 0:36:22Their moment came in 1738
0:36:22 > 0:36:27when a student denounced Hutcheson for teaching heresy
0:36:27 > 0:36:31and published a long list of his gross and dangerous errors.
0:36:31 > 0:36:34But Hutcheson's students quickly rallied around him
0:36:34 > 0:36:38and he easily survived this challenge.
0:36:38 > 0:36:40It was a sign that the tide was turning
0:36:40 > 0:36:44and that the Enlightenment had come to Scotland.
0:36:44 > 0:36:49The threat of heresy looms over everyone in 18th-century Scotland.
0:36:49 > 0:36:54How seriously he took the charges of heresy is of course difficult...
0:36:54 > 0:36:58difficult to recapture, in a sense, at this stage.
0:36:58 > 0:37:00But it could undermine people's careers.
0:37:00 > 0:37:02There's no question about that.
0:37:04 > 0:37:07It was fitting that Hutcheson's students should support him,
0:37:07 > 0:37:11as he had taught them the right to resist authority.
0:37:11 > 0:37:14- Hutcheson said...- "The people have the right of defending themselves
0:37:14 > 0:37:18"against the abuse of power.
0:37:18 > 0:37:21"The people's right to resist is unquestionable."
0:37:21 > 0:37:22One of the students wrote...
0:37:22 > 0:37:26"If everyone had the art to create an esteem for liberty
0:37:26 > 0:37:30"and a contempt for tyranny and tyrants, he was the man."
0:37:35 > 0:37:41This inspiring teacher was becoming a driving force behind the Scottish Enlightenment,
0:37:41 > 0:37:46a period of great intellectual blossoming.
0:37:46 > 0:37:50Many ideas we take for granted today stem from this period.
0:37:50 > 0:37:53Other thinkers began to question received wisdom,
0:37:53 > 0:37:56one in particular was David Hume,
0:37:56 > 0:38:00who would go on to become one of the world's most famous philosophers.
0:38:00 > 0:38:06But back in 1739, he was unknown and struggling to get his voice heard.
0:38:06 > 0:38:11So the young Hume approached the elder and better-known Francis Hutcheson.
0:38:13 > 0:38:19Francis Hutcheson believed that the moral sense was planted within us
0:38:19 > 0:38:20by a benevolent God
0:38:20 > 0:38:25who wants to show us the difference between right and wrong.
0:38:25 > 0:38:29But for David Hume, morality is a human invention,
0:38:29 > 0:38:33a product of custom or of habit.
0:38:33 > 0:38:36God had nothing to do with it.
0:38:38 > 0:38:41Despite their differences, the two philosophers corresponded
0:38:41 > 0:38:44and some letters still survive.
0:38:45 > 0:38:49Here we have the original correspondence between Hume and Hutcheson.
0:38:49 > 0:38:53Why did Hume turn to Hutcheson in the first place?
0:38:53 > 0:38:57What he's looking for from Hutcheson is perhaps support,
0:38:57 > 0:39:02renewed encouragement, perhaps even practical assistance
0:39:02 > 0:39:06in launching his intellectual career, as he moves forward.
0:39:06 > 0:39:10Hutcheson dominates the field in Scotland in the late 1730s.
0:39:10 > 0:39:13He is the pre-eminent moral philosopher
0:39:13 > 0:39:16and so the obvious man for whom Hume will reach out for help
0:39:16 > 0:39:20and support at this stage in his own career.
0:39:20 > 0:39:26You also have to bear in mind that Hume owes a great deal to Hutcheson.
0:39:26 > 0:39:29Many people in the 18th-century didn't fully appreciate
0:39:29 > 0:39:35the extent to which Hume actually builds on Hutcheson's philosophical achievements.
0:39:35 > 0:39:42In particular, Hume borrows from Hutcheson the whole project
0:39:42 > 0:39:45of attempting to map the human mind
0:39:45 > 0:39:49and to describe its internal construction, its operations,
0:39:49 > 0:39:52its workings, and how they play out in terms of human behaviour.
0:39:52 > 0:39:57That's the project in which Hutcheson is engaging, it's the project in which Hume is also engaged.
0:39:57 > 0:40:01But there's also more specific intellectual connection
0:40:01 > 0:40:06between Hutcheson and Hume, in particular what Hutcheson
0:40:06 > 0:40:10does in talking about the moral sense. And although people
0:40:10 > 0:40:15in the 18th-century after both men had died tended to think of Hume
0:40:15 > 0:40:19simply as a reaction against Hutcheson, it's very clear
0:40:19 > 0:40:22that in terms of the use he made of the moral sense,
0:40:22 > 0:40:25Hume was very much indebted to Hutcheson.
0:40:25 > 0:40:30One shouldn't be taken in by the politeness and graciousness
0:40:30 > 0:40:33in the correspondence that's come down to us.
0:40:33 > 0:40:38Hume is applying for a professorship at Edinburgh University
0:40:38 > 0:40:43where the day job, if you like, is teaching morality
0:40:43 > 0:40:47to the next generation of Church of Scotland ministers.
0:40:47 > 0:40:53And given Hume's not very well disguised doubts about religious belief and organised religion,
0:40:53 > 0:40:56particularly in the form in which it is dominant
0:40:56 > 0:41:00in 18th-century Scotland, it would be a dereliction of duty
0:41:00 > 0:41:05no less for Hutcheson to nod through Hume's candidacy.
0:41:12 > 0:41:17Hume tried to impress Hutcheson, but it didn't work.
0:41:17 > 0:41:21Hutcheson was now the most powerful academic in Scotland
0:41:21 > 0:41:26and he used his influence to make sure that Hume never got a university job.
0:41:26 > 0:41:29But today, it's Hume who's got the memorial
0:41:29 > 0:41:35and it's Hume, not Hutcheson, who is famous throughout the world.
0:41:40 > 0:41:45Francis Hutcheson, I think, is a figure whose influence upon
0:41:45 > 0:41:50the modern world is much under appreciated.
0:41:50 > 0:41:53Without Hutcheson, I think, the Scottish Enlightenment
0:41:53 > 0:41:58would have been a very different, assumed quite different character,
0:41:58 > 0:42:01and perhaps would not have been as productive as it turned out to be.
0:42:04 > 0:42:10Out of this vibrant period came another hugely influential figure.
0:42:10 > 0:42:14In 1740, a young man in Hutcheson's class described him as...
0:42:14 > 0:42:18"Undoubtedly beyond all comparison the most acute,
0:42:18 > 0:42:22"the most distant, the most philosophical of all my teachers,
0:42:22 > 0:42:26"the never to be forgotten Mr Hutcheson."
0:42:26 > 0:42:30That student was the future legendary economist Adam Smith.
0:42:32 > 0:42:35Today, Smith is a symbol of capitalism.
0:42:35 > 0:42:39His seminal work, the Wealth of Nations,
0:42:39 > 0:42:43is used globally as a justification for a free trade.
0:42:43 > 0:42:45It argues that in business,
0:42:45 > 0:42:49self-interest can work to the advantage of everyone.
0:42:49 > 0:42:52It's no coincidence that the order of the chapters
0:42:52 > 0:42:56in the Wealth of Nations is almost identical
0:42:56 > 0:42:59to the sequence of Hutcheson's lectures.
0:42:59 > 0:43:05I think Hutcheson could not have had a greater influence on Adam Smith
0:43:05 > 0:43:07and, in many respects,
0:43:07 > 0:43:13his greatest achievement is steering Smith into a line of thinking
0:43:13 > 0:43:20about the human personality which was to be of historic importance.
0:43:23 > 0:43:27Both examined how wealth and luxury
0:43:27 > 0:43:30can fit with being a morally good person.
0:43:36 > 0:43:40Modern economists sometimes depict Adam Smith as a champion
0:43:40 > 0:43:45of naked self-interest, but the truth is very different.
0:43:45 > 0:43:50Hutcheson's questions about society and benevolence matter deeply to Smith,
0:43:50 > 0:43:54and given our economic and financial difficulties,
0:43:54 > 0:43:57maybe those questions are worth asking once again.
0:43:57 > 0:44:01I think if you look at Smith in the context of Hutcheson,
0:44:01 > 0:44:06you start to see that there are aspects of Smith's work
0:44:06 > 0:44:11which don't fit the caricature that we often have of Adam Smith.
0:44:11 > 0:44:14I often think that Smith is characterised as the person
0:44:14 > 0:44:17who said that it's basically through people
0:44:17 > 0:44:20pursuing their self-interest that the common good is realised.
0:44:20 > 0:44:26That is certainly an element of Smith's thought, but there's also a strong emphasis upon benevolence,
0:44:26 > 0:44:30upon people wanting to do good for the sake of doing good.
0:44:30 > 0:44:35People wanting to do good not because it's necessarily just in their self-interest,
0:44:35 > 0:44:39but because it's in the interest of other people as well.
0:44:39 > 0:44:46For someone like Smith, it's very clear that this comes out of the his exposure to many of the ideas
0:44:46 > 0:44:51that you find in Francis Hutcheson's work, particularly Hutcheson's work on moral philosophy.
0:44:53 > 0:44:56Hutcheson had influenced the great thinkers of the age
0:44:56 > 0:45:00who would in turn shape much of the modern world.
0:45:00 > 0:45:05But at the end of his life, he would underestimate his own achievement.
0:45:05 > 0:45:11In 1746, Francis Hutcheson fell ill while visiting Dublin.
0:45:11 > 0:45:15He'd become increasingly dissatisfied with his philosophical writings
0:45:15 > 0:45:20and perhaps even felt he'd been outmanoeuvred by the infidel David Hume.
0:45:22 > 0:45:24Hutcheson died shortly after
0:45:24 > 0:45:28and was buried without fanfare or monument.
0:45:28 > 0:45:31Yet his ideas were to have dramatic consequences.
0:45:36 > 0:45:40At the beginning of the 18th century, the British colonies
0:45:40 > 0:45:44in America enjoyed considerable religious freedom.
0:45:44 > 0:45:49Churches completed to impose their values on this emerging nation.
0:45:49 > 0:45:53# Your own personal Jesus... #
0:45:55 > 0:45:59We all know the story of how America was founded by the Pilgrims
0:45:59 > 0:46:03who fled religious persecution on the Mayflower.
0:46:03 > 0:46:06Less well known is the mass migration of Irish Presbyterians
0:46:06 > 0:46:09in the 18th century.
0:46:09 > 0:46:12Fed up with religious discrimination at home,
0:46:12 > 0:46:16they too sought a better life in the New World.
0:46:18 > 0:46:23One such Ulster Scots immigrant was Francis Alison.
0:46:23 > 0:46:27Evidence suggests he was educated in an Irish Presbyterian Academy,
0:46:27 > 0:46:30probably that of Francis Hutcheson in Dublin.
0:46:30 > 0:46:35He is also thought to have gone to Glasgow University.
0:46:35 > 0:46:39He arrived in America in the 1730s in order to help
0:46:39 > 0:46:41the fledgling Presbyterian Church.
0:46:43 > 0:46:47With him, he brought the ideas of Francis Hutcheson.
0:46:47 > 0:46:52Alison was not only well versed in Hutcheson's ideas,
0:46:52 > 0:46:55he began to teach them for himself.
0:46:55 > 0:46:58This is the spot where he opened his first academy in New London,
0:46:58 > 0:47:02Pennsylvania, and it's believed this is the house where he lived.
0:47:02 > 0:47:08Children here followed a curriculum based on Francis Hutcheson's writings and so, in effect,
0:47:08 > 0:47:11what Alison was trying to do was to recreate
0:47:11 > 0:47:17Hutcheson's celebrated Dublin Academy here in the New World.
0:47:18 > 0:47:22Alison corresponded with Hutcheson about his teachings.
0:47:22 > 0:47:27He also set up his own academy which became the University of Delaware.
0:47:27 > 0:47:29But it wasn't just Francis Alison.
0:47:29 > 0:47:34Hundreds of thousands of Ulster Scots came to America in the 18th-century,
0:47:34 > 0:47:37with many taking up positions of power and influence.
0:47:37 > 0:47:42Through them, Hutcheson's ideas spread like wildfire.
0:47:42 > 0:47:47For new colonists, his writings could be particularly potent.
0:47:47 > 0:47:51- Hutcheson wrote...- "If the mother country attempts anything oppressive
0:47:51 > 0:47:56"towards a colony, and the colony be able to subsist as a sovereign state by itself,
0:47:56 > 0:48:00"or have its plan of polity miserably changed to the worse,
0:48:00 > 0:48:05"the colony is not bound to remain subject any longer."
0:48:09 > 0:48:13Part of the beauty of Hutcheson's influences that it comes almost
0:48:13 > 0:48:18unmediated through the classroom and through the pulpit.
0:48:18 > 0:48:22Hutcheson is widely read, he's widely quoted,
0:48:22 > 0:48:27he's respected, his works are used as textbooks.
0:48:27 > 0:48:32What about Hutcheson's ideas on colonies and colonial resistance?
0:48:32 > 0:48:35One thing that's very important is his asking and answering,
0:48:35 > 0:48:40when it is that colonies may turn independent.
0:48:40 > 0:48:43Even though he's writing a full generation or more
0:48:43 > 0:48:50prior to the American Revolution or what we might call the revolutionary moment, it's a question and answer
0:48:50 > 0:48:55that Americans turn to good account, so when they're thinking about what the appropriate conditions
0:48:55 > 0:49:00under which a people may declare themselves free and independent,
0:49:00 > 0:49:03at what point a people can resist,
0:49:03 > 0:49:07even to the point of arms against a tyrannical government.
0:49:07 > 0:49:11In fact, they're wrestling with this very question in pulpits
0:49:11 > 0:49:16and coffee houses, in their colonial legislatures.
0:49:16 > 0:49:19For instance, in Massachusetts in 1772,
0:49:19 > 0:49:24there was an election day sermon that quoted Hutcheson verbatim,
0:49:24 > 0:49:27by name and approvingly.
0:49:27 > 0:49:30So his asking and answering that question
0:49:30 > 0:49:34was something that was crucial to Americans
0:49:34 > 0:49:37working out their own response
0:49:37 > 0:49:41to what they took to be a tyrannical regime.
0:49:44 > 0:49:47This radical idea of independence influenced a generation of men
0:49:47 > 0:49:54who were key to nation building, the Founding Fathers of America.
0:49:54 > 0:49:58John Adams, a future president, wrote in his diary...
0:49:58 > 0:50:03"16th of January 1756, a fine morning. A large frost up.
0:50:03 > 0:50:08"Reading Hutcheson's Introduction to Moral Philosophy."
0:50:08 > 0:50:13Statesman Benjamin Franklin called him "the ingenious Mr Hutcheson".
0:50:15 > 0:50:19Architect of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson,
0:50:19 > 0:50:23held Hutcheson's books in his library.
0:50:23 > 0:50:25After a year of war with Britain,
0:50:25 > 0:50:30the Founding Fathers led the American Revolution.
0:50:30 > 0:50:35It culminated in the Declaration of Independence.
0:50:35 > 0:50:39The Declaration of Independence was signed in this room.
0:50:39 > 0:50:44It's become such a powerful familiar symbol of American nationhood
0:50:44 > 0:50:48that we completely forget just how risky it was
0:50:48 > 0:50:50for a bunch of small colonies
0:50:50 > 0:50:55to take on the most powerful empire on the planet.
0:50:55 > 0:50:58The first thinker to defend the right of colonists to resist
0:50:58 > 0:51:02an oppressive mother country was Francis Hutcheson.
0:51:02 > 0:51:07Perhaps in the back of his mind was Ireland's difficult relationship with Britain,
0:51:07 > 0:51:11but it was in revolutionary America, in this very room,
0:51:11 > 0:51:17Hutcheson's vision became a reality and that America became independent.
0:51:19 > 0:51:23Not only that, but some of the wording of the Declaration of Independence
0:51:23 > 0:51:27was essentially Hutchesonian in the values it expressed.
0:51:29 > 0:51:34There's no doubt that on his Virginia plantation
0:51:34 > 0:51:37in between having various illicit affairs
0:51:37 > 0:51:42with enslaved African Americans, Thomas Jefferson loved to read Hutcheson.
0:51:42 > 0:51:45A case can be made that Hutcheson influences Jefferson
0:51:45 > 0:51:49in his writing of the US Declaration of Independence.
0:51:49 > 0:51:51In several clauses of the Declaration,
0:51:51 > 0:51:56particularly those that we know are directly written by Jefferson,
0:51:56 > 0:52:00we can also see a focus on sense, sensibility and morality
0:52:00 > 0:52:04that we can deduce are partially influenced
0:52:04 > 0:52:06from a reading of Hutcheson.
0:52:06 > 0:52:11Even the term "unalienable rights", basic human rights
0:52:11 > 0:52:15that cannot be broken, was directly drawn from Hutcheson.
0:52:30 > 0:52:34I think it's true to say the Founding Fathers of the United States
0:52:34 > 0:52:39were all very familiar with Hutcheson's writings, so for that reason,
0:52:39 > 0:52:44I think, his ideas were extremely profound, not just in terms of basic concepts of rights,
0:52:44 > 0:52:47but even some of the language, like unalienable rights.
0:52:47 > 0:52:49That's straight Hutcheson.
0:52:49 > 0:52:52You find that in many of the pamphlets and writings
0:52:52 > 0:52:56of many of the American Founding Fathers and revolutionaries.
0:52:56 > 0:52:59Where else could they have got this language from?
0:53:01 > 0:53:05But his influence on America did not end there.
0:53:05 > 0:53:10Hutcheson was also one of the earliest critics of slavery, writing...
0:53:19 > 0:53:24Hutcheson is being read by figures in the antislavery movement
0:53:24 > 0:53:27and they read him, they find him to be a leading figure
0:53:27 > 0:53:31who they can refer to as someone who lends prestige,
0:53:31 > 0:53:34but also gives a philosophical grounding to their position.
0:53:34 > 0:53:38Hutcheson is very important to the antislavery movement.
0:53:40 > 0:53:44For over two centuries, Hutcheson's words have inspired
0:53:44 > 0:53:50the fight for basic human rights and strikingly the right to happiness.
0:53:50 > 0:53:54Nearly 50 years ago, here on the Mall in Washington,
0:53:54 > 0:53:58Martin Luther King addressed 200,000 people.
0:53:58 > 0:54:04His electrifying I Have A Dream speech is legendary.
0:54:04 > 0:54:09But few people realise that King's appeal to life,
0:54:09 > 0:54:13liberty and the pursuit of happiness was pure Francis Hutcheson.
0:54:13 > 0:54:18# I won't be your whipping boy... #
0:54:21 > 0:54:26The language of rights is alive and well in the United States.
0:54:26 > 0:54:31It is very difficult for anyone in America, be they a philosopher,
0:54:31 > 0:54:35a lawyer or a politician, to avoid using the language of rights
0:54:35 > 0:54:36and even unalienable rights
0:54:36 > 0:54:41because it's so ingrained in American political culture.
0:54:41 > 0:54:44It's partly because of the American Founders, but that's also because
0:54:44 > 0:54:47they were reading people like Francis Hutcheson.
0:54:50 > 0:54:55Hutcheson has been largely forgotten in Ireland today.
0:54:55 > 0:54:57His only monument is a blue plaque
0:54:57 > 0:55:00on Saintfield First Presbyterian Church.
0:55:00 > 0:55:04Yet, even here, his ideas returned after his death
0:55:04 > 0:55:07to shape the actions of others.
0:55:07 > 0:55:12Having helped inspire the American Revolution, Hutcheson's theories of rights and resistance
0:55:12 > 0:55:18influenced the founders of the earliest Irish republican movement.
0:55:20 > 0:55:24The American Revolution inspired the Ulster Presbyterians
0:55:24 > 0:55:28who had carried Hutcheson's ideals into the late 18th century.
0:55:28 > 0:55:30They played a key role
0:55:30 > 0:55:35in organising the United Irishmen's Rebellion of 1798.
0:55:35 > 0:55:40Many of the people who lost their lives are buried here in Saintfield.
0:55:40 > 0:55:44They were fighting for an independent Irish Republic
0:55:44 > 0:55:49with liberty for all, Protestant, Catholic and dissenter.
0:55:51 > 0:55:55Today, our media is rife with news of different political and religious conflicts.
0:55:55 > 0:56:00And Hutcheson's ideas are as valuable as they have ever been.
0:56:02 > 0:56:05I think there are many things that Western societies, any society,
0:56:05 > 0:56:09could learn from reading people like Francis Hutcheson.
0:56:09 > 0:56:14He had this idea that commercial societies, whether they are in a state of boom
0:56:14 > 0:56:17or in a state of economic depression,
0:56:17 > 0:56:21if they're going to function they need more than just legal support,
0:56:21 > 0:56:25that you need people who behave in a certain way, act in a certain way,
0:56:25 > 0:56:31that know certain things should never be done, even if there are no laws prohibiting these things.
0:56:33 > 0:56:36Hutcheson's ideas are in a sense hidden from view.
0:56:36 > 0:56:41It's because they became the matter of consensus, that people stopped
0:56:41 > 0:56:43reflecting on where they came from
0:56:43 > 0:56:48and who articulated them and what positions they had to counteract in order for them to work.
0:56:48 > 0:56:53We're still living with the consequences of that philosophical position
0:56:53 > 0:56:58and living, in political terms, in the sense that he stood up for ideals of democracy
0:56:58 > 0:57:03and tried to think about human beings as people who could live together fundamentally.
0:57:03 > 0:57:06They could live together because they had something in common
0:57:06 > 0:57:09and that thing that they had in common is a moral sense.
0:57:11 > 0:57:16I think Hutcheson's kind of been forgotten because he's not a cynic.
0:57:16 > 0:57:20He is an optimist about human nature.
0:57:20 > 0:57:24Although one might look around and think that he was clearly wrong
0:57:24 > 0:57:29to be so optimistic, actually it's a far too bleak
0:57:29 > 0:57:32and one-sided picture to think
0:57:32 > 0:57:38that human beings are solely motivated by selfish interests.
0:57:38 > 0:57:41Clearly, it's more complicated than that
0:57:41 > 0:57:43and I think that we would do well
0:57:43 > 0:57:47to inject some of that Hutchesonian optimism
0:57:47 > 0:57:51into our very cynical picture of the world.
0:57:53 > 0:57:55# Know your rights
0:57:56 > 0:58:00# These are your rights... #
0:58:02 > 0:58:06Many of the principles that we take for granted, like equality
0:58:06 > 0:58:12and basic human rights, were championed by Francis Hutcheson nearly three centuries ago.
0:58:12 > 0:58:15He was a radical in his own time.
0:58:15 > 0:58:21Someone who battled with powerful conventions to establish a new vision of humanity.
0:58:21 > 0:58:25And today, when we face recession, and an uncertain future,
0:58:25 > 0:58:30perhaps it's time we listened again to this forgotten revolutionary.
0:58:31 > 0:58:34# Oh, know these rights
0:58:41 > 0:58:45#You have the right to free speech
0:58:48 > 0:58:50# As long as
0:58:50 > 0:58:54# You're not dumb enough to actually try it
0:58:56 > 0:58:58# Know your rights
0:59:00 > 0:59:04# These are your rights. #
0:59:04 > 0:59:06Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd