A chara – Joe Humphreys’s otherwise insightful feature on aphorisms and philosophy (Life, November 15th) may have left readers with the impression that Ireland can boast of no great philosophers. May I plead the case of Francis Hutcheson who was born in Saintfield in Co Down in 1694? Hutcheson is regarded as “The Father of the Scottish Enlightenment” and must rank as one of the great thinkers of his era.
He worked as a teacher in Dublin from 1719 to 1730. His masterful work An Inquiry concerning the Original of our Ideas of Beauty and Virtue was published in 1725. Appointed to the Chair of Moral Philosophy at the University of Glasgow in 1730, Hutcheson had a profound influence on a generation of Scottish philosophers including Adam Smith and David Hume.
His writings also inspired the founders of the United States of America particularly Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin. Franklin described him as “the ingenious Mr Hutcheson”.
Francis Hutcheson died in Dublin in 1746 when visiting friends in the city. He now lies in an unmarked grave in the city he loved and where his best work was done.
On December 1st, 2012 a group of ex-prisoners (Loyalist and Republican) will travel from Belfast to Dublin to attend at the unveiling of a plaque in honour of our great and almost forgotten philosopher near to his burial place at Wolfe Tone Park in central Dublin. – Yours, etc,