Francis Hutcheson (1694–1746) is one of the great names in the history of British moral philosophy, yet his writings are not easily available. Of his writings on moral philosophy, the two pieces here presented have been even more inaccessible than the rest. The first, a preview of his Inquiry, here called Reflections on the Common Systems of Morality, was omitted from the 1971 facsimile edition of the collected works. The second, his inaugural lecture on man's natural sociality, here given the title On the Social Nature of Man, has remained comparatively inaccessible because it was published in Latin. It is presented here in an English translation for the first time.

When researching relevant material for this edition, other pieces by Hutcheson, published in his lifetime but not included in the facsimile edition of the collected works, came to my notice. One is a letter, published in a French translation, in which he protested against some unfavourable remarks by the reviewer in Bibliothèque Angloise 13 (1725). It is not included here, as an English version of it has recently been published in an article by David Raynor. For further detail, see p. 82 below. Another item is a letter on conic sections in Bibliothèque Raisonnée des Ouvrages des Savans de l'Europe 14 (1735), intended to draw favourable attention to a new work on the subject by his colleague Robert Simson, professor of mathematics. This letter does not fall within the scope of moral philosophy, so it is not included here.