Primary Literature

Works by Richard Price

There is currently no up to date complete edition of Price’s works. The relevant historical editions of his works discussed in this article are:

• 1759, Britain’s Happiness, and the Proper Improvement of it, London: A. Millar and R. Griffiths. (Scholar)
• [D] 1768 [1777], Four Dissertations, London: A. Millar and T. Cadell. The fourth edition is 1777. [D available online] (Scholar)
• 1778, Two Tracts on Civil Liberty, the War with America, and the Debts and Finances of the Kingdom, London.
• 1778, A Free Discussion of the Doctrines of Materialism, and Philosophical Necessity, (with Joseph Priestley), London: J. Johnson and T. Cadell.
• 1781, A Fast Sermon, London: T. Cadell.
• 1787a, A Review of the Principal Questions in Morals, London: T. Cadell.
• 1787b, Sermons on the Christian Doctrines as received by the different Denominations of Christians, London. [Price 1787b available online]
• 1816, Sermons on Various Subjects, in William Morgan (ed.), The Works of Dr. Richard Price. With Memoirs of His Life, London: R. Rees, available online.

Modern Editions are:

• [R] 1948, A Review of the Principal Questions in Morals, D. D. Raphael (ed.), Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• [P] 1991, Political Writings, D. O. Thomas (ed.), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9781139170239
• The Correspondence of Richard Price, D. O. Thomas and Bernard Peach (eds), Durham NC: Duke University Press / Cardiff: University of Wales Press.
  • 1983, Vol. 1: July 1748 – March 1778 (Scholar)
  • 1991, Vol. 2: March 1778 – February 1786
  • 1994, Vol. 3: February 1786 – February 1791

Page numbers for quotations from Price are taken from three editions. Page references prefaced by R are to Raphael’s 1974 edition of A Review. Those prefaced by P are to the 1991 collection of Price’s political writings. And those prefaced by D are to the 1777 edition of Four Dissertations.

Influences on Price

• Balguy, John, 1734, A Collection of Tracts, Moral and Theological, London: J. Pemberton. (Scholar)
• Butler, Joseph, 1729 [2017], Fifteen Sermons (2^nd ed.) London: John and Paul Knapton in Joseph Butler: Fifteen Sermons and Other Writings on Ethics, David McNaughton (ed.), Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017. (Scholar)
• –––, 1736 [2021], The Analogy of Religion, Natural and Revealed, London: John and Paul Knapton in Joseph Butler: The Analogy of Religion, David McNaughton (ed.), Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021. (Scholar)
• Clarke, Samuel, 1728 [1998], A Discourse Concerning the Being and Attributes of God, the Unchangeable Obligations of Natural Religion, and the Truth and Certainty of the Christian Revelation, London: James & John Knapton. Extracts in Samuel Clarke: A Demonstration of the Being and Attributes of God and Other Writings, E. Vailaiti (ed.), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (Scholar)
• Cudworth, Ralph, 1731 [1996], A Treatise Concerning Eternal and Immutable Morality, London: James and John Knapton in A Treatise Concerning Eternal and Immutable Morality, with A Treatise of Freewill, Sarah Hutton (ed.), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996. (Scholar)
• Hume, David, 1739–40 [1978], A Treatise of Human Nature, in David Hume: A Treatise of Human Nature, Peter H. Nidditch (ed.), Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1978. (Scholar)
• –––, 1777 [1975], An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals, in David Hume: Enquiries Concerning Human Understanding and Concerning the Principles of Morals, Peter H. Nidditch (ed.), Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1975. (Scholar)
• –––, [L] The Letters of David Hume (2 vols.), J.Y.T. Greig (ed.), Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1932.
• Hutcheson, Francis, 1725 [2008], An Inquiry into the Original of our Ideas of Beauty and Virtue; in Two Treatises, London: W. and J. Smith in Francis Hutcheson: An Inquiry into the Original of our Ideas of Beauty and Virtue; in Two Treatises, W. Leidhold (ed.), Indianapolis: Liberty Fund. (Scholar)
• –––, 1728 [2002], An Essay on the Nature and Conduct of the Passions and Affections. With Illustrations on the Moral Sense, Dublin: J. Smith and W. Bruce in F. Hutcheson: An Essay on the Nature and Conduct of the Passions and Affections. With Illustrations on the Moral Sense, A. Garrett (ed.), Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 2002. (Scholar)
• Locke, John, 1690 [1975], An Essay Concerning Human Understanding in The Works of John Locke: An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, Peter H. Nidditch (ed.), Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1975. (Scholar)
• Paley, William, 1785, Principles of Moral and Political Philosophy, London: R. Faulder (Scholar)
• Reid, Thomas, 1764 [1997], An Inquiry into the Human Mind, on the Principles of Common Sense, in The Edinburgh Edition of Thomas Reid, Derek Brookes (ed.), Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1997. (Scholar)
• –––, 1785 [2002], Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man, in The Edinburgh Edition of Thomas Reid, Derek Brookes and Knud Haakonssen (eds.), Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2002. (Scholar)
• Shaftesbury, Lord, 1714 [1999], Characteristics of Men, Manners, Opinions, Times in Shaftesbury: Characteristics of Men, Manners, Opinions, Times, Lawrence E. Klein (ed.), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999. (Scholar)
• Smith, Adam, 1759 [2010], The Theory of Moral Sentiments in Adam Smith: The Theory of Moral Sentiments, Amartya Sen (ed.), Harmondsworth: Penguin Classics, 2010. (Scholar)
• Wollaston, William, 1724 [1978],The Religion of Nature Delineated (New York & London: Garland Publishing, 1978). (Scholar)

An extensive collection of extracts from the above authors can be found in:

• Raphael, D. Daiches, 1969, British Moralists 1650–1800, Oxford: Oxford University Press. (Scholar)

Secondary Literature

• Aiken, Henry David, 1954, “The Ultimacy of Rightness in Richard Price’s Ethics: A Reply to Mr. Peach”, Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 14(3): 386–392. doi:10.2307/2104110 (Scholar)
• Ameriks, Karl, 2021, “Dignity Beyond Price: Kant and his Revolutionary British Contemporary”, Kant Yearbook, 13: 1–27. doi:10.1515/kantyb-2021-0001 (Scholar)
• Åqvist, Lennart, 1960, The Moral Philosophy of Richard Price, Copenhagen: Gleerup, Lund, and Munksgaard. (Scholar)
• Barnes, Winston H. F., 1942, “Richard Price: A Neglected Eighteenth Century Moralist”, Philosophy, 17(66): 159–173. doi:10.1017/s0031819100003326 (Scholar)
• Bengson, J., T. Cuneo, and R. Shafer-Landau, 2023, “Pricean Reflection,” British Journal for the History of Philosophy, 31(4): 744–761. doi: 10.1080/09608788.2021.2007846 (Scholar)
• Broad, C. D., 1945, “Some Reflections on Moral-Sense Theories in Ethics”, Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, 45(1): 131–166. Reprinted in Broad’s Critical Essays in Moral Philosophy, David Cheney (ed.), London: George Allen & Unwin, 1971, pp. 188–222. doi:10.1093/aristotelian/45.1.131 (Scholar)
• Canovan, Margaret, 1978, “Two Concepts of Liberty: Eighteenth Century Style”, The Price-Priestley Newsletter, 2: 27–43. [Canovan 1978 available online] (Scholar)
• Cone, Carl B., 1952, Torchbearer of Freedom: The Influence of Richard Price on 18th Century Thought, Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky. (Scholar)
• Crisp, Roger, 2018, “Richard Price on Virtue”, in Virtue, Happiness, Knowledge: Themes from the Work of Gail Fine and Terence Irwin, David O. Brink, Susan Sauvé Meyer, and Christopher Shields (eds.), Oxford: Oxford University Press, 252–268. (Scholar)
• Cua, A. S., 1966, Reason and Virtue: A Study in the Ethics of Richard Price, Athens, OH: Ohio University Press. (Scholar)
• Darwall, Stephen, 1998, “Price, Richard (1723–91)”, in Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, London: Routledge. doi:10.4324/9780415249126-db057-1 (Scholar)
• Dickinson, H. T., 2005, “Richard Price on Reason and Revolution”, in Religious Identities in Britain, 1660–1832, William Gibson and Robert G. Ingram (eds.), London: Routledge, 231–254. (Scholar)
• Duthille, Rémy, 2012, “Richard Price on Patriotism and Universal Benevolence”, Enlightenment and Dissent, 28: 24–41. [Duthille 2012 available online] (Scholar)
• Earman, John, 2000, Hume’s Abject Failure: The Argument against Miracles, Oxford: Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/0195127382.001.0001 (Scholar)
• –––, 2002, “Bayes, Hume, Price and Miracles”, in Bayes’s Theorem, Richard Swinburne (ed.), (Proceedings of the British Academy, 113), Oxford: Oxford University Press, 91–109. (Scholar)
• Elazar, Y., 2022, “The Downfall of all Slavish Hierarchies: Richard Price on Emancipation, Improvement, and Republican Utopia,” Modern Intellectual History, 19: 81–104. doi:10.1017/s1479244320000293 (Scholar)
• Frame, Paul, 2015, Liberty’s Apostle: Richard Price, His Life and Times, Cardiff: University of Wales Press. (Scholar)
• Holland, J. D., 1968, “An Eighteenth-Century Pioneer Richard Price, D.D., F. R. S. (1723–1791)”, Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London, 23(1): 43–64. doi:10.1098/rsnr.1968.0009 (Scholar)
• Hudson, W.D., 1970, Reason and Right: A Critical Examination of Richard Price’s Moral Philosophy, London: Macmillan. (Scholar)
• Hunt-Bull, Nicholas, 2004–7, “Richard Price and Francis Hutcheson—Does a Moral Sense Theory Make Ethics Arbitrary”, Enlightenment and Dissent, 23: 24–44. [Hunt-Ball 2004 available online] (Scholar)
• Irwin, Terence, 2008, The Development of Ethics, vol. 2, Oxford: Oxford University Press: 714–53. (Scholar)
• Laboucheix, Henri, 1970 [1982], Richard Price: théoricien de la révolution américaine, le philosophe et le sociologue, le pamphlétaire et l’orateur, (Etudes anglaises 37), Paris: Didier. Translated as Richard Price as moral philosopher and political theorist, Sylvia and David Raphael (trans.), Oxford: Voltaire Foundation at the Taylor Institution, 1982. (Scholar)
• Morgan, William, 1815, Memoirs of the Life of the Rev. Richard Price, London: R. Hunter. [Morgan 1815 available online] (Scholar)
• Olson, Jonas, 2014, “Rationalism vs. Sentimentalism: Reviewing Price’s Review”, Philosophical Papers, 43(3): 429–445. doi:10.1080/05568641.2014.976443 (Scholar)
• Owen, David, 1987, “Hume Versus Price on Miracles and Prior Probabilities: Testimony and the Bayesian Calculation”, The Philosophical Quarterly, 37(147): 187–202. doi:10.2307/2220337 (Scholar)
• Page, A., 2011, “‘A Species of Slavery’: Richard Price’s Rational Dissent and Antislavery,” Slavery and Abolition, 32(1): 53–73. (Scholar)
• –––, 2018, “War, Public Debt and Richard Price’s Rational Dissenting Radicalism,” Historical Research, 91(251): 98–115. (Scholar)
• Passmore, J. A., 1951, Ralph Cudworth: An Interpretation, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (Chapter 8: Cudworth and the British Moralists). (Scholar)
• Peach, Bernard, 1954, “The Indefinability and Simplicity of Rightness in Richard Price’s Review of Morals”, Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 14(3): 370–385. doi:10.2307/2104109 (Scholar)
• –––, 1955, “History of Philosophy as Justifiable Interpretation a Reply to Henry Aiken”, Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 16(1): 113–120. doi:10.2307/2103453 (Scholar)
• –––, 1978, “On What Point Did Richard Price Convince Hume of a Mistake? With a Note by Henri Laboucheix”, The Price-Priestley Newsletter, 2: 76–81. [Peach 1978 available online] (Scholar)
• –––, (ed.), 1979, Richard Price and the Ethical Foundations of the American Revolution, Durham, NC: University of North Carolina. (Scholar)
• –––, 1980, “Hume’s Mistake”, Journal of the History of Ideas, 41(2): 331–334. doi:10.2307/2709465 (Scholar)
• Peterson, Susan Rae, 1984, “The Compatibility of Richard Price’s Politics and Ethics”, Journal of the History of Ideas, 45(4): 537–547. doi:10.2307/2709372 (Scholar)
• Poitras, Geoffrey, 2013, “Richard Price, Miracles and the Origins of Bayesian Decision Theory”, The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, 20(1): 29–57. doi:10.1080/09672567.2011.565356 (Scholar)
• Price, H. S., 1986, “A Few Observations on David Hume and Richard Price on Miracles”, Enlightenment and Dissent, 5: 21–37. [H.S. Price 1986 available online] (Scholar)
• Prior Arthur N., 1949a, Logic and the Basis of Ethics, Oxford: Clarendon Press. [Prior 1949a available online] (Scholar)
• –––, 1949b, “Propriety and Truth: (1) Preliminary History”, in Prior 1949a: ch. 6. (Scholar)
• –––, 1949c, “The Naturalistic Fallacy: The History of Its Refutation”, in Prior 1949a: ch. 9. (Scholar)
• Raphael, D. Daiches, 1947, The Moral Sense (Chapter 8: Richard Price), London: Oxford University Press. (Scholar)
• Rashdall, Hastings, 1907, “Intuitionism”, in Theory of Good and Evil: A Treatise on Moral Philosophy, second edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press, vol. 1, ch. 4. [Rashdall 1907 available online] (Scholar)
• Raynor, David, 1981, “Hume’s Mistake—Another Guess”, Hume Studies, 7(2): 164–166. doi:10.1353/hms.2011.0565 (Scholar)
• Schneewind, Jerome B., 1998, “Price’s Intuitionism”, in The Invention of Autonomy: A History of Modern Moral Philosophy (Section ii of Ch. 18, “Against a Fatherless World”), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/cbo9780511818288 (Scholar)
• Schroeder, M., 2014, “The Price of Supervenience,” in M. Schroeder, Explaining the Reasons We Share: Explanation and Expression in Ethics (Volume 1), Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 124–144. doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198713807.003.0007 (Scholar)
• Sidgwick, Henry, 1902, “Modern, Chiefly English, Ethics: Later Intuitionism, Price”, in Outlines of the History of Ethics for English Readers, fifth edition, London: Macmillan, (ch. 4, sec. 11) pp. 224–6. [Sidgwick 1902 available online] (Scholar)
• Stephen, Leslie, 1876, “The Intellectual School”, “Price’s Review”, “The Intellect and the Emotions”, “Result of his Teaching”, §§12–14 of Chapter 9 (“Moral Philosophy”), Section II “The Intellectual School” of History of English Thought in the Eighteenth Century, first edition, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., Vol. II, pp. 12–14. [Stephen 1876 available online] (Scholar)
• Stephens, John, 2000, “Conscience and the Epistemology of Morals: Richard Price’s Debt to Joseph Butler”, Enlightenment and Dissent, 19: 133–146. [Stephens 2000 available online] (Scholar)
• Thomas, David Oswald, 1976, Richard Price 1723–1791, Cardiff: University of Wales Press. (Scholar)
• –––, 1977, The Honest Mind: The Thought and Work of Richard Price, Oxford: Clarendon Press. (Scholar)
• –––, 2005, “Price, Richard (1723–1791)”, in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford: Oxford University Press, version of 26 May 2005. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/22761 (Scholar)
• Thomas, David Oswald, John Stephens, and P. A. L. Jones, 1993, A Bibliography of the Works of Richard Price, Aldershot: Scolar Press. (Scholar)
• Thomas, Roland, 1924, Richard Price, Philosopher and Apostle of Liberty, Oxford: Oxford University Press. (Scholar)
• Wedgwood, R., 2024, “Pricean Ignorance,” British Journal for the History of Philosophy, 1–22. doi:10.1080/09608788.2024.2334763 (Scholar)
• Zebrowski, Martha K., 1994, “Richard Price: British Platonist of the Eighteenth Century,” Journal of the History of Ideas, 55: 17–35. (Scholar)
• Zebrowski, Martha K., 2000, “‘We may venture to say that the number of Platonic Readers is considerable’: Richard Price, Joseph Priestley, and the Platonic Strain in Eighteenth Century Thought”, Enlightenment and Dissent, 19: 193–213. [Zebrowski 2000 available online] (Scholar)

Biographies

The earliest of the biographies of Price is by his nephew, William Morgan (1815) who worked with Price for the last twenty years of his life on actuarial matters. Although it contains some inaccuracies, it is by far the most detailed contemporary source. A modern edition, edited and with an introduction by D. O. Thomas, constitutes the complete contents of the journal Enlightenment and Dissent 22 (2003). R. Thomas (1924) interweaves biography with discussion of his ideas and influence. It devotes considerable space to Price’s influence on actuarial practice and on the politics of his day. Cone (1952) has a similar structure, but is more detailed than Thomas 1924. Written from an American perspective it casts light on Price’s influence in the framing of the Constitution of the USA. Thomas 1976 is a very brief but engaging study. Frame’s (2015) magisterial volume is the first to take a purely chronological approach to its subject seeking to place Price and his work firmly in their historical context. It makes full use of Price’s correspondence and his shorthand journal to give the fullest picture to date.