Philosophical Essays on Various Subjects, Viz. Space, Substance, Body, Spirit, the Operations of the Soul in Union with the Body, Innate Ideas, Perpetual Consciousness, Place and Motion of Spirits, the Departing Soul, the Resurrection of the Body, the Pr…

xvi, 407, [1] pp. 12mo. An exploration of ontology, discussing John Locke's writings and other related topics. "In philosophy Watts described as 'a favourite employment of my thoughts' the relation between soul and body and the function of the sensations, appetites, and passions (preface to Philosophical Essays on Various Subjects, 1733; Works, 6.481). His most important works on these topics, in addition to the Philosophical Essays, are The Doctrine of the Passions and Discourses of the Love of God, and the Use and Abuse of the Passions in Religion (1729), and Self-Love and Virtue Reconciled Only by Religion (1739). Watts objected to Locke's attack on innate ideas and supported the existence of the moral sense, provided it was regarded as 'reason exercising itself' (Works, 6.526), but for religious reasons he strongly disapproved of Shaftesbury. His interest in the passions was closely related to his concern with the ways in which the preacher might work on them for religious ends." - Oxford Dictionary of National Biography