The Scottish enlightenment : essays in reinterpretation

Abstract

Despite the recent surge of scholarship on the Scottish Enlightenment, no single volume has attempted to take stock of the field since the 1980s. The Scottish Enlightenment: Essays in Reinterpretation brings together essays by an international group of experts who are all well known for their publications on eighteenth-century Scotland. Individually, the essays cover a wide range of topics, from medicine to moral philosophy, and each chapter expands our knowledge of the Enlightenment in Scotland by providing new information or a fresh look at significant questions which have aroused controversy in the past. Readers will find the latest research on the culture of print in the Scottish Enlightenment; the medical world of eighteenth-century Scotland; the relations between the Scottish literati and Enlightened savants in England and Europe; geography and the rise of public science in Scotland; the philosophical systemes of Francis Hutcheson, George Campbell, and Thomas Reid; the manuscripts of David Hume; and the historical works of Dugald Stewart. In their different ways, the essays additionally explore some of the most important historiographical issues associated with the study of the Scottish Enlightenment. Readers are introduced to debates over the very definition of the term 'the Scottish Enlightenment'; the coherence of the 'school' of Scottish philosophy; the Scottish Enlightenment and the making of Scottish identity; the roles of science, medicine, moral philosophy, and political economy in enlightened culture; and the cosmopolitan character of the Enlightenment. This volume thus enriches our picture not only of the Scottish Enlightenment, but of the Enlightenment in general.

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