Francis Hutcheson, the Troubles in Northern Ireland, and Terrorism

Few non-philosophers will have heard of Hutcheson (1694-1746), a Presbyterian minister from Drumalig, Co Down, Ulster, and one of the foremost philosophers of his day. He was a major influence on Hume, Kant, and Adam Smith (an economic student of his at Glasgow University, where Hutcheson held the chair of Moral Philosophy). He was an important 18th century Scottish Enlightenment thinker, preceding Jeremy Bentham in formulating an utilitarian system of thought and part of a pan-British Isles network of learning that helped usher in modern democracy and industrialisation. Hutcheson was widely read on the Continent and the American colonies, where his theory of the right to rebel against unjust government encouraged political violence.