Abstract
John Gregory, of Aberdeen and Edinburgh, without doubt stands as one of the two major figures of British medical ethics in the latter half of the eighteenth century — the other being Thomas Percival of Manchester. Gregory’s distinctive contribution is that, by steeping himself in the moral philosophy of the Scottish Enlightenment, he provides a plainly philosophical basis for medical ethics. Living at a time when the age of manners had all but ended, Gregory could not rely on received views about good conduct and the right order of society [6]. Only more a reliable foundation would do. By setting about to provide such a foundation in terms of the moral philosophy of the Scottish Enlightenment, Gregory marks himself — from our perspective — as the first modem figure in Anglo-American medical ethics.
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McCullough, L.B. (1993). John Gregory’s Medical Ethics and Humean Sympathy. In: Baker, R., Porter, D., Porter, R. (eds) The Codification of Medical Morality. Philosophy and Medicine, vol 45. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-8228-5_7
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