An Enquiry Concerning The Principles Of Morals - Opening

SECTION 1
OF THE GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF MORALS

DISPUTES with men, pertinaciously obstinate in their principles, are, of all others, the most irksome; except, perhaps, those with persons, entirely disingenuous, who really do not believe the opinions they defend, but engage in the controversy, from affectation, from a spirit of opposition, or from a desire of showing wit and ingenuity, superior to the rest of mankind. The same blind adherence to their own arguments is to be expected in both; the same contempt of their antagonists; and the same passionate vehemence, in enforcing sophistry and falsehood. And as reasoning is not the source, when either disputant derives his tenets; it is in vain to expect, that any logic, which speaks not to the affections, will ever engage him to embrace sounder principles.

Oxford University Press, Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP

Published in the United States
by Oxford University Press Inc., New York

Editorial introduction and apparatus Tom L. Beauchamp 1998

The moral rights of the author have been asserted

First published in 1998.

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