The Scottish Enlightenment

by Broadie, Alexander

• ISBN13: 9781841581514
• ISBN10: 1841581518
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-03-01
• Publisher: Birlinn Ltd

Summary

The Scottish Enlightenment was one of the greatest intellectual and cultural movements that the world has ever seen. Its legacy in philosophy, history, science, music, art, architecture, economics, and many other disciplines cannot be overstated. This book considers the totality of achievements from this most astonishing period of Scottish history and how they still animate and inspire the world today.

Author Biography

Alexander Broadie is Professor of Logic and Rhetoric at Glasgow University and is a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

Table of Contents

List of Plates	ix
Preface	xi
Introduction	1	(5)
The Enlightenment in Scotland	6	(37)
The problem of origin	6	(8)
Thinking for yourself	14	(6)
Theory and practice	20	(2)
Light and darkness	22	(3)
The literati	25	(7)
The age of criticism	32	(6)
Improvement	38	(5)
History and Enlightenment	43	(35)
Why study the past?	43	(11)
The dynamic of society	54	(4)
History and national identity	58	(3)
History and moral philosophy	61	(3)
Conjectural history	64	(11)
The course of history	75	(3)
Morality and Civil Society	78	(35)
Some key concepts	78	(1)
Nature and society	79	(6)
The fragility of freedom	85	(9)
Patriotism as a passion	94	(6)
Sympathy and education	100	(8)
A general education	108	(5)
Enlightened Religion	113	(38)
Religion and Enlightenment	113	(6)
The Natural History of Religion	119	(7)
Why dialogue?	126	(4)
Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion	130	(10)
Kames in trouble	140	(6)
The view from the pulpit of St Giles	146	(5)
Enlightenment in the arts	151	(35)
Whaur's yer Wullie Shakespeare noo?	151	(2)
Scots in Rome	153	(3)
Painting and education	156	(8)
Portraiture	164	(3)
The craft of painting	167	(8)
Hutcheson's aesthetics	175	(3)
Hume on the standard of taste	178	(8)
Science and Enlightenment	186	(33)
Science and its unity	186	(5)
The psychology of scientific discovery	191	(7)
Theology and Newtonian science	198	(5)
The blind geometer	203	(6)
The age of the earth	209	(10)
Epilogue The end of the Scottish Enlightenment?	219	(4)
Bibliography	223	(7)
Index	230