Jonathan Edwards's Moral Thought and Its British Context: 3 (Jonathan Edwards Classic Studies)

The problems of moral philosophy were a central preoccupation of literate people in eighteenth-century America and Britain. It is not surprising then that Jonathan Edwards was drawn into a colloquy with some of the major ethicists of the age. Moral philosophy in this era was so all-encompassing in its claims that it encroached seriously on traditional religion. In response Edwards presented a detailed analysis and criticism of secular moral philosophy in order to demonstrate its inadequacy and he formulated a system that he believed was demonstrably superior to the existing secular systems. In this comprehensive study Norman Fiering skillfully integrates Edwardss work on ethics into seventeenth- and eighteenth-century British and Continental philosophy and isolates Edwardss particular contributions to the ethical thought of his time. In addition Fiering traces the chronological development of Edwardss thought showing the relationship between his wide reading and his writing.