An Oration. Delivered before the American Philosophical Society,
BR-2022.009
Rush (Benjamin) An Oration. Delivered before the American Philosophical Society, Held in Philadelphia on the 27th of February, 1786; containing an Enquiry into the Influence of Physical Causes upon the Moral Faculty. The second edition.
From Catalog II
Rush's first major APS oration, on the influence of physical causes upon the moral faculty -- the argument that physical conditions shape moral behavior and are therefore susceptible to physical intervention. Delivered before Franklin and the full membership of the Society in 1786, this pamphlet is the theoretical foundation for the entire reform agenda: if drunkenness is a disease and vice is a physical condition, then medicine has a legitimate claim on social policy. Franklin was in the audience. The pamphlet's argument is, in a sense, the intellectual inheritance Franklin bequeathed to Rush: use natural philosophy in the service of social improvement.
Accession
BR-2022.009
Date
1786 — First Edition
Author / maker
Rush, Benjamin
Condition
a few spots here and there, pp. [vili].
71, 8vo, modern boards, good (ESTC T4095, BL. (bis) and the University of Wales only in the UK)
References
Fox (1786-11)
Notes
Dedicated to Franklin. "It is perhaps only because the disorders of the moral faculty, have not been traced to a connection with physical causes, that medical writers have neglected to give them a place in their systems of nosology.'The Physical Causes include Climate, Diet,Certain Drinks, Extreme Hunger, Idleness, Bodily Pain, Cleanliness, Solitude, &c.
Cite this object as“An Oration. Delivered before the American Philosophical Society,.” The Soiferman Collection, BR-2022.009, Wynnewood, Pennsylvania. EIS LIBRIS, https://eislibris.com/objects/an-oration-delivered-before-the-american-philosophical-society-1 (accessed [date]).
