ABSTRACT
Although Robert Burns never mentions Francis Hutcheson by name in any of his poems or letters, it can be claimed with a reasonable degree of certainty that Burns was aware of some of the main themes and implications of Hutcheson's philosophy. Now and again in the author's personal perusal of his writings, his attention has been drawn to ideas, words or phrases of his that are so clearly reflected in Burns's work that it is tempting to think that he had indeed read some of the philosopher's writings. Hutcheson shows a trace of this sentiment in his early work, An Essay on the Nature and Conduct of the Passions and Affections with Illustrations on the Moral Sense (1728). Hutcheson's understanding of humanity is quite different from that projected by the Calvinist doctrines held by the Church of Scotland at the time.
