PREFACE.

My principal object, in this publication, is to exhibit such a view of the Arrangement of my Lectures, as may facilitate the studies of those to whom they are addressed. In a course which employs more than five months, and which necessarily includes a great variety of disquisitions, it is difficult for a hearer to retain a steady idea of the train of thought leading from one subject to another; and, of consequence, the lectures, by assuming the appearance of detached discourses, are in danger of losing the advantages arising from connexion and method. The following Outlines will, I hope, not only obviate this inconvenience; but will allow me, in future, a greater latitude of illustration and digression, than I could have indulged myself in with propriety, so long as my students were left to investigate the chain of my doctrines by their own reflections.

In the execution of this design, I have attempted, at the same time, to state, under each head, a few fundamental principles, which I was either anxious to impress on the memory of my hearers; or which. I thought might be useful to them, by relieving their attention during the discussion of a long or a difficult argument.

The branch of Moral Philosophy which relates to the Principles of Politics being less abstract than the others, I have contented myself with a simple enumeration of the most important articles treated of in the third part of my course. It is scarcely necessary for me to mention, that, in this enumeration, I have not aimed at any thing approaching to systematical arrangement; and that, in illustrating the titles it contains, I am obliged, by the term prescribed to my academical labors, to confine myself to very general sketches. As soon as my other en

gagements allow me sufficient leisure for such an undertaking, I shall attempt a separate course of lectures on this very extensive and difficult subject.

With respect to my general plan, those who are in the smallest degree conversant with Ethical writers, will perceive, that, in its formation, I have been guided almost entirely by the train of my own speculations. In following the order which these prescribed, I was far from proceeding on the supposition, that it was likely to possess, in the opinion of the public, advantages over the arrangements already proposed: but it appeared to me reasonable to think, that a plan resulting from my own. habits of thought, would probably be better executed in my hands, than any one, how perfect soever, suggested by the views of another.

College of Edinburgh, Nov. 8, 1793.

DUGALD STEWART.

OUTLINES

OF

MORAL PHILOSOPHY.

INTRODUCTION.

SECTION I.

Of the Object of Philosophy, and the Method of prosecuting Philosophical Inquiries.

1. ALL the different kinds of philosophical inquiry, and all that practical knowledge which guides our conduct in life, presuppose such an established order in the succession of events, as enables us to form conjectures concerning the future from the observation of the past.

2. In the phenomena of the material world, and in many of the phenomena of mind, we expect with the most perfect confidence, that in the same combinations of circumstances the same results will take place. The laws which regulate the course of human affairs are investigated with much greater difficulty: But even in this class of events, such a degree of order may frequently be traced as furnishes general rules of great practical utility; and this order becomes the more apparent, in proportion as we generalize our observations.

3. Our knowledge of the laws of nature is entirely the result of observation and experiment; for there is no instance in which we perceive such a necessary connexion between two successive events, as might enable us to infer the one from the other by reasoning a priori.

We find from experience that certain events are invariably conjoined, so that when we see the one, we expect the other; but our knowledge in such cases extends no farther than to the fact.

4. To ascertain those established conjunctions of successive events, which constitute the order of the universe; to record the phenomena which it exhibits to our observation, and to refer them to their general laws, is the great business of philosophy.-Lord Bacon was the first person who was fully aware of the importance of this fundamental truth.-The ancients considered philosophy as the science of causes; and hence were led to many speculations, to which the human faculties. are altogether incompetent.

5. The ultimate object of philosophical inquiry is the same which every man of plain understanding proposes to himself, when he remarks the events which fall under his observation, with a view to the future regulation of his conduct. The more knowledge of this kind we acquire, the better can we accommodate our plans to the established order of things, and avail ourselves of natural Powers and Agents for accomplishing our purposes.

6. The knowledge of the Philosopher differs from that sagacity which directs uneducated men in the business of life, not in kind, but in degree, and in the manner in which it is acquired. 1. By artificial combinations of circumstances, or, in other words by experiments, he discovers many natural conjunctions which would not have occurred spontaneously to his observation. 2. By investigating the general Laws of Nature, and by reasoning from them synthetically, he can often trace an established order, where a mere observer of facts would perceive nothing but irregularity. This last process of the mind is more peculiarly dignified with the name of Philosophy; and the object of the rules of philosophizing is to explain, in what manner it ought to be conducted.

7. The knowledge which is acquired of the course of Nature by mere observation, is extremely limited, and extends only to cases in which the uniformity of the observed phenomena is apparent to our senses. This happens, either when one single law of nature operates