Book ChapterDOI
The political theory of the Scottish Enlightenment
Fania Oz-Salzberger
- pp 157-177
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TLDR
The Scottish political thought of the eighteenth-century was shaped by three sets of problems: Scotland's voluntary loss of sovereignty in an age when statehood and statecraft steadily gained importance; the need for a viable modern theory of politics amid clashing idioms of the good life and the good polity; and the tall order set by the natural sciences for standards of certainty, regularity and predictability in the study of human affairs as discussed by the authors.Abstract:
Scotland's singular voice within the polyphony of the European Enlightenment has attracted a great deal of debate. As historians attempt to weigh local varieties of Enlightenment, informed by disparate religious, political and cultural settings, against the transnational concerns and cosmopolitan aspirations of 'the' Enlightenment, Scotland posits a remarkable case in point. Scotland's European contexts have often been overlooked; by the same token, its distinct features can only be mapped against the contours of the European Enlightenment. David Hume, Adam Smith, William Robertson, John Millar and Adam Ferguson were subtle disciples of European intellectual traditions, and conversant with a range of Enlightenment cultures. At the same time, their writings convey a powerful sense of Scotland's incomparable position as a kingdom within the British union, set apart by its church and jurisprudence, and by its singular decision to trade sovereignty for empire. Nowhere is this apparent tension more pronounced than in the field of political theory. POLITICS AND THE SCOTS Taken as a field of enquiry, politics is a conjuncture of mind-sets
responding to contemporary political issues, critical perusals of intellectual
traditions and cross-fermentation with other sciences. The balance between these elements may differ according to era and
culture; but eighteenth-century Scottish thinkers were able to draw
vigorously on all three sources of inspiration. Their political thought
was accordingly shaped by three sets of problems: Scotland’s voluntary
loss of sovereignty in an age when statehood and statecraft steadily gained importance; the need for a viable modern theory of
politics amid clashing idioms of the good life and the good polity; and
the tall order set by the natural sciences for standards of certainty,
regularity and predictability in the study of human affairs.read more
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References
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BookDOI
David Hume: Enquiries Concerning Human Understanding and Concerning the Principles of Morals (Third Edition)
David Hume,P. H. Nidditch +1 more
BookDOI
Wealth and virtue : the shaping of political economy in the Scottish enlightenment
Istvan Hont,Michael Ignatieff +1 more
TL;DR: Hont and Ignatieff as mentioned in this paper studied the relationship between the civic humanist and the civil jurisprudential interpretation of eighteenth-century social thought in the Wealth of Nations.
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That Noble Science of Politics: A Study in Nineteenth-Century Intellectual History
TL;DR: In this paper, three well-known historians of ideas examine the diverse forms taken in nineteenth-century Britain by the aspiration to develop what was then known as a "science of politics".