The Philosophy of the Active and Moral Powers of Man (Volume One, only, of Two)

Boston: Wells and Lilly. Fair with no dust jacket. 1828. First American Edition. First Printing. Hard Cover. This is the first American edition of volume one of Stewart's final work, published in two volumes in 1828. Dugald Stewart (1753-1828), Adam Smith's first biographer and a leading voice of the Scottish Enlightenment, was elected professor of mathematics in 1775 and professor of moral philosophy in 1785 at the University of Edinburgh. Today regarded as one of the most important figures of the later Scottish Enlightenment, he was renowned as a popularizer of the work of Francis Hutcheson and Adam Smith. Trained in mathematics, medicine and philosophy, his lectures at the University of Edinburgh were widely disseminated by his many influential students. In 1783 he was a joint founder of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. This volume is Is divided into three books, with subsequent chapters within this volume. Topics include: Our Instinctive Principles of Action; our Appetites; our Desires of Knowledge, Society, Esteem, Power and Superiority; our affections: general observations, of Kindred, of Friendship, of Patriotism, of Pity to the Distressed; Our Rational and Governing Principles of Action; Of a prudential regard to our own Happiness/Self-Love; Of the Moral Faculty; Analysis of our Moral Perceptions and Emotions; Of Moral Obligation; Of certain principles which cooperate with our moral powers in their influence on the conduct.of Decency, Sympathy, the Sense of the Ridiculous, and of Taste; Of the various branches of our duty; Of the duties to the Deity, principles of Natural Religion, and of the Existence of Deity; and of the foundations of our reasoning from the Effect to the Cause, and the evidences of Active Power exhibited in the Universe. . The spine is split at pages 124/125, but all pages are present and tightly bound, small former bookseller's label on fep, former owners' stamps and signatures on ffep ("Gilbert Northrup"), covers are mildly rubbed and soiled, all pages readable and otherwise unmarked. FAIR. . Large 8vo 9" - 10" tall. xi, 296 pp .