Scottish Philosophy In The Seventeenth Century

During the seventeenth century Scots produced many high quality philosophical writings, writings that were very much part of a wider European philosophical discourse. Yet today Scottish philosophy of the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries is widely studied, but that of the seventeenth century is only now beginning to receive the attention it deserves. This volume begins by placing the seventeenth-century Scottish philosophy in its political and religious contexts, and then investigates the writings of the philosophers in the areas of logic, metaphysics, politics, ethics, law, and religion. It is demonstrated that in a variety of ways the Scottish Reformation impacted on the teaching of philosophy in the Scottish universities. It is also shown that until the second half of the century—and the arrival of Descartes on the Scottish philosophy curriculum—the Scots were teaching and developing a form of Reformed orthodox scholastic philosophy, a philosophy that shared many features with the scholastic Catholic philosophy of the medieval period. By the early eighteenth century Scotland was well placed to give rise to the spectacular Enlightenment that then followed, and to do so in large measure on the basis of its own well-established intellectual resources. Among the many thinkers discussed are Reformed orthodox, Episcopalian, and Catholics philosophers including George Robertson, George Middleton, John Boyd, Robert Baron, Mark Duncan, Samuel Rutherford, James Dundas (first Lord Arniston), George Mackenzie, James Dalrymple (Viscount Stair), and William Chalmers.

'A History of Scottish Philosophy' is a series of collaborative studies, each volume being devoted to a specific period. This volume focuses on the intellectual context, and influence of Hutcheson, Hume, Smith, and Reid; moral and political philosophy, the sciences of man, and religion. The chapters explore the distinctively Scottish context of the Scottish Enlightenment, and juxtapose the work of canonical philosophers with contemporaries now very seldom read.

"The Oxford Handbook of British Philosophy of the 17th Century provides an advanced comprehensive overview of the issues that are informing research on the subject of British philosophy in the seventeenth century, while at the same time offering new directions for research to take. It covers the whole of the seventeenth century, ranging from Francis Bacon to John Locke and Isaac Newton. The book contains five parts: the introductory Part I examines the state of the discipline and the nature of its practitioners as the century unfolded; Part II discusses the leading natural philosophers and the philosophy of nature, including Bacon, Boyle, and Newton; Part III covers knowledge and the human faculty of the understanding; Part IV explores the leading topics in British moral philosophy from the period; and Part V concerns political philosophy. In addition to dealing with canonical authors and celebrated texts, such as Thomas Hobbes and his Leviathan, it discusses many less-well-known figures and debates from the period whose importance is only now being appreciated."--Publisher's description.

This authoritative anthology covers the many contributions to science, philosophy and economics made by the great minds of 18th century Scotland. Through the eighteenth and into the nineteenth centuries, Scotland saw an explosion of intellectual activity in the realms of philosophy, law, economics, politics, linguistics and the physical sciences. Great thinkers such as Adam Smith, David Hume, Adam Ferguson, Thomas Reid, James Hutton, and many others formulated many of the ideas that would become foundational to modernity. This anthology collects some of the most significant works by Scottish Enlightenment thinkers as well as lesser-known writings that have not been reprinted for centuries. Arranged thematically, it includes sections on Human Nature, Ethics, Aesthetics, Religion, Economics, Social Theory and Politics, Law, Historiography, Language and Science. Scottish philosopher and intellectual historian Alexander Broadie sheds light on the significance of these writings through his masterful introduction as well as commentary throughout. “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, UK

During the seventeenth century Scots produced many high quality philosophical writings, writings that were very much part of a wider European philosophical discourse. Yet today Scottish philosophy of the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries is widely studied, but that of the seventeenth century is only now beginning to receive the attention it deserves. This volume begins by placing the seventeenth-century Scottish philosophy in its political and religious contexts, and then investigates the writings of the philosophers in the areas of logic, metaphysics, politics, ethics, law, and religion. It is demonstrated that in a variety of ways the Scottish Reformation impacted on the teaching of philosophy in the Scottish universities. It is also shown that until the second half of the century--and the arrival of Descartes on the Scottish philosophy curriculum--the Scots were teaching and developing a form of Reformed orthodox scholastic philosophy, a philosophy that shared many features with the scholastic Catholic philosophy of the medieval period. By the early eighteenth century Scotland was well placed to give rise to the spectacular Enlightenment that then followed, and to do so in large measure on the basis of its own well-established intellectual resources. Among the many thinkers discussed are Reformed orthodox, Episcopalian, and Catholics philosophers including George Robertson, George Middleton, John Boyd, Robert Baron, Mark Duncan, Samuel Rutherford, James Dundas (first Lord Arniston), George Mackenzie, James Dalrymple (Viscount Stair), and William Chalmers.

Provides a comprehensive introduction to the full range of achievements of the Scottish thinkers who so profoundly influenced western culture.

Twenty-six new essays by experts on seventeenth-century thought provide a critical survey of this key period in British intellectual history. These far-reaching essays discuss not only central debates and canonical authors from Francis Bacon to Isaac Newton, but also explore less well-known figures and topics from the period.

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.