The purpose of the present study is to present the life and work and thought of a remarkable pioneering figure on the Scottish scene over the middle half, broadly, of the eighteenth century, in their dynamic relations with that most extraordinary intellectual awakening and scientific, edu cational, literary and religious development of his time generally known as the "Scottish Enlightenment. " That movement in thought and culture was indeed in more ways than one a unique phenomenon in the history of western culture, comparable, in its own manner and measure, as we shall attempt to point out later, with such history-making movements or epochs as the Age of Pericles in Greece, the Augustan Age in Rome, the Renaissance movement in Italy and Western Europe generally, the up-surge both in science and in letters in England in the seventeenth century, and the contemporary movement in France associated with the Encyclopedists. This Scottish Enlightenment, often also spoken of as the "Awakening of Scotland," was of course more than a movement merely on the intel lectual and cultural level. It had also political bearings and was rather directly conditioned by events and changes in the political arena, begin ning with the Union with England in 1707; and even more directly was it accompanied and conditioned by social and economic changes which were in a short span of time to transform the face of this far-northern country almost beyond recognition.

The judge, jurist and philosopher Henry Home, Lord Kames (1696-1782) was a polymath and one of the principal personalities of the Scottish Enlightenment. As a teacher and mentor of Adam Smith, Thomas Reid, and David Hume to some extent, he published works on law and legal history, moral philosophy, aesthetics and rhetoric, anthropology and sociology of law, and on the economic and agricultural improvement of Scotland. He saw these disciplines as elements of a philosophical history of man that developed in certain stages, and he considered law as part of all these subjects. Kames was a widely read author in the eighteenth century, and some of his works were translated into French and German at the time. His influence on German men of letters and on some of the Founders of the United States was considerable. This anthology contains characteristic passages from Kames's works, particularly from his Sketches of the History of Man (1774), a comprehensive synoptic work which presents Kames's idea of the progress of man, of society, and of the sciences, from the Essays on the Principles of Morality and Natural Religion (1751), a critique of Hume and an important work of Scottish Common Sense philosophy, from the Elements of Criticism (1762) on aesthetics, rhetoric and literary criticism, and from the Principles of Equity (1760) and the Historical Law-Tracts (1758) as his main works on law and legal history.

The Scottish Enlightenment shaped a new conception of history as a gradual and universal progress from savagery to civil society. Whereas women emancipated themselves from the yoke of male-masters, men in turn acquired polite manners and became civilized. Such a conception, however, presents problematic questions: why were the Americans still savage? Why was it that the Europeans only had completed all the stages of the historic process? Could modern societies escape the destiny of earlier empires and avoid decadence? Was there a limit beyond which women's influence might result in dehumanization? The Scottish Enlightenment's legacy for modernity emerges here as a two-faced Janus, an unresolved tension between universalism and hierarchy, progress and the limits of progress.

Provides an overview of the disctinctive thinking of a fascinating mix of educational pioneers and thinkers from the canon of philosophers and philosophical schools from the classical, medieval, early modern and modern. Includes: Plato, Aristotle, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Wollstonecraft, Humboldt, Utopian socialists, J.S. Mill, Carpenter and Dewey.

In the Enlightenment it was often argued that moral conduct, rather than adherence to theological doctrine, was the true measure of religious belief. Thomas Ahnert argues that this “enlightened” emphasis on conduct in religion relied less on arguments from reason alone than has been believed. In fact, Scottish Enlightenment champions advocated a practical program of “moral culture,” in which revealed religion was of central importance. Ahnert traces this to theological controversies going back as far as the Reformation concerning the conditions of salvation. His findings present a new point of departure for all scholars interested in the intersection of religion and Enlightenment.

Presenting original research by prominent scholars, this book provides the first comprehensive survey of the rise and progress of political economy as an integral part of the Scottish Enlightenment.

Edited and Introduced by Alexander Broadie. The Scottish Enlightenment is one of the great achievements of European culture. In philosophy, law, economics, politics, linguistics and the physical sciences, Scots were key players in changing the way the world was viewed. And this explosion of activity still reverberates. It was the age of David Hume, Thomas Reid and Adam Smith, of Adam Ferguson, James Hutton and Sir John Sinclair. In his authoritative introduction, Alexander Broadie emphasises not only the diversity of intellectual discussion taking place in this small country located on the outer edge of Europe, but also the European dimension of this Scottish movement. After the general introduction, the anthology is arranged thematically – Human Nature, Ethics, Aesthetics, Religion, Economics, Social Theory and Politics, Law, Historiography, Language and Science. These sections gather together well-known and lesser-known writings of the time. Much of the material has not been reprinted since the 18th century. Those with an interest in the Scottish cultural tradition will find many things to hold their attention in this unique book. ‘Provides generous extracts from key works and masterly brief introductions.’ Economist ‘A major contribution to our literature and intellectual resources and I do not think it could be better done . . . For many people this book will become a companion for years or even a lifetime.’ Scotsman

Disputed Titles: Ireland, Scotland, and the Novel of Inheritance, 1798-1832 argues for the centrality of inheritance—often impeded, disrupted inheritance—to the novel’s rise to preeminence in Britain during the Romantic period. Novels by Maria Edgeworth, Sydney Owenson, Charles Maturin, Walter Scott, and John Galt are densely populated by orphans, changelings, and lost and kidnapped heirs, and privilege a romance plot of dispossession that undermines the illusion of continuity implicit in the very concept of legacy. Through narratives of illegitimate ownership and other similar genealogical aberrations, authors from Britain’s “peripheries” interrogate their equivocal places in the uneasy compound of “The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.” Moving between the local and global manifestations of inheritance, their novels imagine history as contested property in order to explore vital issues of historic transition and political legitimacy, issues of immense consequence in the revolutionary climate of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.

This two-volume set presents a comprehensive and up-to-date history of eighteenth-century philosophy. The subject is treated systematically by topic, not by individual thinker, school, or movement, thus enabling a much more historically nuanced picture of the period to be painted.

Common Sense and Science from Aristotle to Reid reveals that thinkers have pondered the nature of common sense and its relationship to science and scientific thinking for a very long time. It demonstrates how a diverse array of neglected early modern thinkers turn out to have been on the right track for understanding how the mind makes sense of the world and how basic features of the human mind and cognition are related to scientific theory and practice. Drawing on a wealth of primary sources and scholarship from the history of ideas, cognitive science, and the history and philosophy of science, this book helps readers understand the fundamental historical and philosophical relationship between common sense and science.