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MORAL CULTURE AND HISTORICAL PROGRESS IN THE SCOTTISH ENLIGHTENMENT

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ThomasAhnert, The Moral Culture of the Scottish Enlightenment 1690–1805 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2014)

AnnaPlassart, The Scottish Enlightenment and the French Revolution (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 January 2018

STEWART J. BROWN*
Affiliation:
School of Divinity, University of Edinburgh E-mail: s.j.brown@ed.ac.uk

Extract

We continue to be intrigued by the Scottish Enlightenment. How was it that a relatively remote country on the geographical periphery of Europe—with a harsh climate, a largely mountainous terrain, a strict Calvinist creed, a small population and a history of civil strife—emerged in the 1740s as a “hotbed of genius” and a center of the European Enlightenment? The subject, to be sure, has been well studied. There is an immense literature and it can seem that there is little new to be said. Indeed, it may be, as the eminent historian Colin Kidd has observed in this journal, that “the very concept of the ‘Scottish Enlightenment’ has become a stale historiographical commonplace.” And yet the subject continues to intrigue, continues to attract scholars from a variety of disciplines. For something extraordinary happened in eighteenth-century Scotland. Simply to list some of the names cannot fail to impress: David Hume in philosophy and historical writing, Frances Hutcheson in moral philosophy, Adam Smith in moral philosophy and economic thought, Adam Ferguson in social thought, Thomas Reid in philosophy, William Robertson in historical writing, Hugh Blair in rhetoric and literary studies, James Hutton in geology, and Joseph Black in chemistry. The achievements of the Scottish Enlightenment were immense; its world influence has been enduring. And at its heart was the study of moral philosophy and of the moral progress of humankind.

Type
Review Essays
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

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References

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