Introduction
Rush, Benjamin (1745-1813) was born in a farmer's family near Philadelphia. Educated at the College of New Jersey, and then studied medicine at the 1766-1768 bienniums at Edinburgh University under the direction of Dr. J. Redman in 1768-1769 in a hospital in London. Rapprochement with Franklin and chat with radical elements (during his stay in London) contributed to the development and strengthening at Rush republican views. In 1769, Rush began practicing medicine in Philadelphia, and provided medical aid to mostly poor. The result of his teaching was a course of lectures "A syllabus of a Course of Lectures on Chemistry".
In the 70s Rush’s activism marked above all his performances against Negro slavery, and in particular his famous "Address to the inhabitants of the British settlements in America with respect to slavery." In 1774 Rush was one of the main organizers of the Pennsylvania Society for Assistance to the abolition of Negro slavery, of which he became president in 1803 scientific and public activities Rush brought him to Franklin founded the American Philosophical Society. In his speeches on political issues Rush steadily defended the interests of the American colonies against the encroachments of England. From the earliest days of the struggle for independence, Rush took an active part in the revolutionary events.
In his philosophical views Rush belonged to the right wing deistic direction in the American Enlightenment.
While the focus of Rush physical factors, it does not ignore in his works of social factors, noting the impact on the morality of different stages of social development, economy, political system, professional differences. Ethics Rush is very close to the materialist: rationale of natural origin and nature of morality and elucidating the physical and social causes of change and differentiation - a distinctive feature of the approach to the materialist ethics. Rush noted eclecticism and attempts to reconcile science with religion. Therefore, it is not surprising that he reacted to the negative labor anti-religious Paine’s "The Age of Reason."
The Theory of Benjamin Rush
The influence of physical causes for moral ability.
I call the moral capacity of the human spirit's ability to distinguish between good and evil, or in other words, virtue and vice, and to make a choice between them. These innate principles, and although it can be improved by experience and reflection, it does not appear either from the one nor the other.
Because I believe that virtue and vice consist in actions and not in the arguments, and because the source of these actions is not conscience, and will, I will limit my research mainly on the influence of the physical causes of the moral capacity of spirit associated with volition, though, as I prove it below, many of these reasons are also the conscience. State of moral ability is manifested in actions that affect the welfare of the society. Status of conscience unnoticed and therefore is beyond our study.
In order to clarify the influence of good examples of the physical reasons for the moral capacity, it is necessary first of all to show their effects on memory, the imagination and the power of judgment. At the same time, it is necessary to point out the analogy between their impact on mental ability and moral ability.
1. We note the relationship between intelligence and degree of density and hardness of the brain in infants and children. The same relationship has been established between the installed power and the development of moral ability in children.
2. We note the relationship between brain size and specific features.
3. We note in some families hereditary mental abilities certain strength.
4. We have seen cases of the complete lack of memory, imagination and the power of judgment or as a result of congenital flaw in the medulla, or under the influence of physical causes.
Conscience is like a wise and faithful Legislative Council exercises control over the moral capacity and thus prevents the fatal consequences of immoral behavior.
I foresee an objection doctrine of the influence of physical causes on the moral faculty, because they believe that it supports the view of the materiality of the soul. However, I do not see why this doctrine should encourage us to resolve the issue of the nature of the soul more than the facts that prove the influence of the physical causes of memory, imagination and the power of judgment. At the same time, I would like in this connection to note that all of the authors who recognized the immortality of the soul, caused great harm to this truth, certainly associate it with the immateriality. Immortality of the soul depends on the will of God, and not on the assumed properties of the spirit. Matter by its very nature is as immortal as the spirit. By means of heat and it is possible to make mixtures of various forms; but for its destruction requires the same hand of the Almighty, who created it. I do not know any other arguments to prove the immortality of the soul, except drawn from the Christian revelation. Assert that the soul is immortal because of its infinite capacity for knowledge and happiness or fear of annihilation, it would be more reasonable than to say that the ocean is immortal because of its limitless possibilities accommodate any body of water, or that we have to live forever in this world, as we are afraid of death.
Insignificant, as it affects the physical causes listed below on the moral capacity - through feelings, emotions, memory or imagination. Their influence is equally undeniable, whether they act as a remote cause, or as a predisposition or accidental causes.
Lectures on Animal Life
When we look at the human body, the first thing we are struck him his life. She, of course, should be the first subject of our research. This is the most important issue, because the goal of all efforts of the doctors - to preserve life; this cannot be achieved as long as we do not know what is the life.
Animal life in the human body involves the movement, feeling and thinking. Their combination forms a complete life. It can exist without thought or without sensations, but neither thought nor feeling cannot exist without motion. The lowest form of life probably can exist even without movement, as I will discuss later. I prefer the term "movement" a term such as "swing" or "vibration" as used by Dr. Hartley in the explanation of the laws of animal matter, because I think this expression is more simple and accessible.
I will begin with a presentation of three general provisions.
I. Each part of the human body (except hair and nails) is endowed with sensitivity or excitability or both. Sensitivity is the ability to experience; we understand the feeling produced by impressions. Excitability means the property of a human body whereby the movement is driven under the influence of impressions.
II. The human body as a whole is created and its parts are interconnected in such way that if it is in a healthy state, the impact on one part of it excites movement or sensation, or both in all its parts. From this perspective, the human body is represented by a single, or a simple and indivisible quality or substance.
III. Life is the result of certain stimuli that affect the sensitivity and excitability.
Love to fame acting differently, but it is most noticeable stimulus and strong in the life of the military. In many cases, it ceases debilitating hunger, cold, and hard work. Sometimes it acts to such an extent that eliminates the weaknesses associated with many diseases. There were times when she helped her endure the hardships of camp life, cured of tuberculosis.
Love of country is deeply rooted in the human soul principle. This incentive is sometimes so strong that the first time makes people sick.
Love of country is manifested in various forms, but finds its most frequent expression in the care, diligence and devotion, in the hatred of the spirit of separation (party spirit). All this is a powerful incentive that supports animal life. I think that all classes of the people interested in the newspapers because they reflect (contain) the degree of happiness or unhappiness of our country. These media spokesmen for public pleasure or pain, often expect to look the same as the food, they often produce the same stimulating effect on the body.
Various religions of the world have a marked effect on human life of the activity, which they excite in the soul. Atheism - the worst sedative for reason and the passions. He distracts the mind from the most sublime, from love, from the most perfect of all possible objects. Man by nature is a religious as well as public and pet. Take away his faith in God, is to commit the same violence against his spiritual abilities, what we do, dooming him to a solitary existence in a prison cell, deprived of all the objects and pleasures of social and family life. Necessary and unchanging relationship between the structure of the human mind and the worship of any object recently proved themselves atheists Europe who rejected the true God introduced the worship of nature, and the fate of the human mind, and in some cases, this is accompanied by the worship of very expensive and elaborate ceremony.
Religion favors of animal life to the extent that they elevate the mind and affect the feelings of hope and love. You can easily agree that Christianity, when they believe in him and obey his precepts, is more capable of producing according to its original harmony with oneself and the divine attributes these feelings than any other religion in the world. - Action teachings and precepts of Christianity in the health and life of [human] so beneficial that if the divine authority of Christianity rested only on this, one would have been enough to offer it to our faith. It's hard to say how long humanity will prefer defective desire and pleasure enchanting stimulus Christianity; but we are convinced that the time will come when the mind is exalted, turning away from their current low objects, and came out of obedience passion will again be returned in their original condition. - I believe that such a change in people's minds will be achieved only through the influence of the Christian religion, after all the efforts of the human mind to make such a change with the help of civilization, philosophy, freedom and control does not lead to the goal.
Sources
Binger, Carl (1966). Revolutionary Doctor: Benjamin Rush (1746–1813).
Brodsky, Alyn (2004). Benjamin Rush: Patriot and Physician. New York: Truman Talley Books/St. Martin's Press.
Hawke, David (1971). Benjamin Rush: Revolutionary Gadfly. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill.
Levine, Harry G. "The Discovery of Addiction: Changing Conceptions of Habitual Drunkenness in America." Journal of Studies on Alcohol. 1978; 15: pp: 493–506. Also available at: http://soc.qc.cuny.edu/Staff/levine/The-Discovery-of-Addiction.pdf
Spencer, Mark G. Encyclopedia of the American Enlightenment (2013)
Rush, Benjamin (1947). The selected writings of Benjamin Rush. New York: Philosophical Library. p. 448. ISBN 978-0-8065-2955-4.
Rush, Benjamin (1799). "Observations Intended to Favour a Supposition That the Black Color (As It Is Called) of the Negroes Is Derived from the Leprosy". Transactions of the American Philosophical Society 4.
Benjamin Rush on Savagism and Progress Stephen, J. Kunitz and Benjamin Rush Ethnohistory, Vol. 17, No. 1/2 (Winter – Spring, 1970), pp. 31–42 Published by: Duke University Press
Rush, Benjamin (1805). Inquiry into the Effects of Ardent Spirits upon the Human Body and Mind. Philadelphia: Bartam.
