 On Hutcheson’s early (and best known) view, what the moral sense approves of is above all “the general calm desire of the happiness of others”, in distinction from particular benevolent passions like love and compassion (1728: 175). On this picture, in contrast to Shaftesbury, the motive of morally praiseworthy actions is benevolence and not the thought that the action is obligatory or that it would be approved of by the moral sense itself. In Hutcheson’s terminology, moral sense is the source of justifying reasons, but not exciting reasons. (For the development of Hutcheson’s views, see Bishop 1996).