ABSTRACT
Hutcheson's notion of an innate sociability was primarily articulated in his Dublin writings and built upon the ideas of Shaftesbury, but also bore a strong resemblance to notions first explored by George Berkeley over ten years earlier in a short essay in The Guardian. By examining the intellectual context surrounding discussions of sociability during the early eighteenth century and the contributions of Berkeley and Hutcheson to this movement, this essay will highlight the relationship between science and morality during a crucial moment of Irish intellectual history. Although Berkeley's short essay may have been the first to apply Newtonian language to the question of sociability, his fellow Irish philosopher, Francis Hutcheson, echoed his analysis in his two major texts from the 1720s. Turnbull claimed that, as for Berkeley and Hutcheson, Newtonian language cloaked the traditional Stoic idea of sociability; effectively dressing Cicero in Newton's clothes and providing a naturalistic explanation for a social phenomenon.
