Brothers Battle: “Take My Inheritance, Please!”

In How Scots Invented the Modern World, Arthur Herman describes how philosopher Francis Hutcheson moved beyond dour Calvinism to evolve an enlightened view of human morality.

"For Hutcheson," Herman writes, "our emotional lives reach out, instinctively, toward others . . . . The basic rules of morality, including Christianity's rules, teach us how to act in the world, so that we can make as many others happy as possible."

[Hutcheson] knew people could behave viciously, and hurt others . . . . But, he was asserting, that is not their true nature. As God's creatures, they carry within them the image of His infinite goodness. By using their reason and listening to their heart, they will choose right over wrong, and the good of others rather than gratification for themselves.

The proof of this had come, interestingly enough, in his own life. When his grandfather Alexander died, he had left his house and estate to Francis, his favorite grandchild, bypassing in his will the eldest grandson, Hans. Francis very properly turned it down, although it would have raised his standard of living substantially. When Hans learned what his brother Francis had done for his benefit, then he, too, refused, insisting that their grandfather's original wishes be carried out. The brothers spend the next several months arguing back and forth, each trying to force on the other the good fortune left to them by their grandfather — as perfect an example of altruism in action as Shaftesbury ["the suave aristocrat of English philosophers"] or anyone else could ask.

Ultimately, writes Herman, the brothers agreed to split the estate.