Abstract This chapter examines discussions of association of ideas and habit pursued by philosophers of the Scottish Enlightenment. It is argued that they played a fundamental role not only in epistemology, but also in aesthetics and morality. Beginning with Hutcheson’s adoption of Locke’s treatment of association as the basis for pathological beliefs the chapter proceeds to the positive accounts of its role in reasoning and action presented by Hume and Turnbull. As well as expanding the principles of association of ideas beyond those formed by habit, Hume left questions about the relationship of association and habit which were explicitly dealt with by his successors. The chapter explores the further expansion of the principles of association by Kames, Gerard, Reid, and Stewart, as well as the debates about whether association or habit was a more basic principle of human nature. In the conclusion, the authors note the changes in the treatment of these topics in the nineteenth century.
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