Austen's Oughts : Judgment After Locke and Shafterbury

Situates the disinterested, reflective appeal to moral principle invoked - ironically or otherwise - in Austen's oughts within the history of thought about judgement in the British eighteenth century.

Beginning with Shaftesbury's critique of Locke's account of judgement, successive readings explore the emphasis on disinterest in works by David Hume, Adam Smith, Samuel Richardson, and Sir Joshua Reynolds alongside discussions of Jane Austen's major novels.