This major work in the history of ethics provides the first study of early modern British ethics in several decades. It aims to uncover the roots of the idea (called internalism in contemporary discussion) that any binding 'ought' must be based in the motives of a deliberating agent, as this notion developed in the thought of British philosophers writing in the period from Hobbes to the appearance of Hume's Treatise in 1740.

1. The British moralists: inventing internalism; 2. Culverwell and Locke: classical and modern natural law; 3. Hobbes: ethics as 'consequences from the passions of men'; 4. Cumberland: obligation naturalised; 5. Cudworth: obligation and self-determining moral agency; 6. Locke: autonomy and obligation in the revised Essay; 7. Shaftesbury: authority and authorship; 8. Huteson: moral sentiment and calm desire; 9. Butler: conscience as self-authorising; 10. Hume: norms and the obligation to be just; 11. Concluding reflections.