Francis Hutcheson is one of the leading influential figures of the Scottish Enlightenment. His work influenced philosophers such as David Hume, Adam Smith, Jeremy Bentham and even the Founding Fathers of the United States of America.

The Enquiry consists of two essays exploring aesthetics and morality. The first, ‘concerning beauty, order, harmony, design’, argues that humans possess an innate sense of beauty, but that individual judgements can be made about what is considered beautiful. This judgement is known as ‘taste’. These ideas were also explored in his essay on morality, which argued that the public had an inherent sense of right and wrong, and would feel uneasy when unjust actions occurred.