What ideas did Francis Hutcheson present in An Inquiry into the Original of Our Ideas of Beauty and Virtue?

In his 1725 work, An Inquiry into the Original of Our Ideas of Beauty and Virtue, Francis Hutcheson proposed that humans possess "internal senses" beyond the five external ones, including a sense of beauty and a sense of morality.1

Regarding aesthetics, Hutcheson argued that perceptions of beauty and harmony are derived from a "sense" rather than intellectual reflection or reasoning. He posited that aesthetic judgments are perceptual and universal among those who experience them.2

Regarding ethics, Hutcheson identified the "moral sense" as the most significant internal sense. He argued that this sense is implanted in humans, allowing them to instinctively and immediately approve of virtuous actions and disapprove of vicious ones. Crucially, he established that the moral criterion for an action is whether it promotes the general welfare of mankind. By suggesting that the best action is that which provides "the greatest happiness for the greatest number," Hutcheson anticipated the Utilitarianism later developed by Jeremy Bentham.1