AN EXAMINATION OF THE NEW SYSTEM OF SOCIETY, BY ROBERT OWEN, SHOWING ITS INSUFFICIENCY TO REFORM MANKIND. WITH OBSERVATIONS ON THE OPERATION OF THE PRINCIPLE OF VIRTUE IN THE MIND OF MAN by [Fisher, William Logan] - 1826

Philadelphia: Published by John Mortimer... Jesper Harding, Printer, 1826. x, [11]-86 pp. Several light institutional rubberstamps, lightly toned. Bound in attractive, modern marbled boards and quarter calf, gilt-lettered red morocco spine label. Except as noted, Very Good.

Fisher [1781-1862] was a Philadelphia Quaker, philosopher, and entrepreneur: he owned one of the area's first woolen mills, and operated the Duncannon Iron Works.
An avid reformer, he opposed establishment of the Sabbath in Pennsylvania's laws. "Fisher's aversion to coercion extended beyond the religious sphere as well, and in 1826 he wrote a respectful but forceful critique of Robert Owen's new system of social reform [this offering]. Doubting Owen's Lockean assumption that mankind has no moral virtue other than what was inculcated through education, Fisher also regarded the 're-modification of self-interest' at the heart of Owenism to be far too sanguine about the perfectibility of man. Pointing out significant instances of general moral virtue among the Native Americans and black slaves, who had no rationalized system of moral influence at their disposal, Fisher maintained the Quaker view that moral rectitude is available to all through consultation with their divine individual conscience. This view aligned him with the more liberal views of the Quaker Elias Hicks" [Dictionary of Early American Philosophers].
AI 24538. Not in Sabin, Eberstadt, Larned.