Introduction and Scope

The Scottish Enlightenment is a fairly extensive subject. In this this website, a limited set of subtopics have been selected for treatment, mostly guided by the personal interest of the author.  The individuals included are first Francis Hutcheson, acknowledged to be a foundational figure of this period, and professor of moral philosophy at the University of Glasgow. Then there is philosopher and economist Adam Smith, a student of Hutcheson at Glasgow and his successor at this faculty. There is also a circle of  friends who lived in Edinburgh which included Wiliam Robertson, Hugh Blair, Alexander Carlyle, David Hume, and Adam Ferguson. Adam Smith lived in Glasgow, he traveled often to visit Edinburgh, and should also be considered a member of this circle. Robertson, Blair and Ferguson were members of the faculty or administration at the University of Edinburgh. Robertson, Blair and Carlyle were also prominent  Presbyterian preachers. Philosopher David Hume struck some discordant notes, but he was nevertheless an integral member of the Edinburgh circle. Another thread follows George Turnbull through Thomas Reid, his student at Marischal College and ending back at Glasgow, where Reid replaced Adam Smith at the Moral Philosophy chair. Turnbull acknowledges a debt to Hutcheson.  It should be noted that the material is selected and organized by topic rather than by author. As a result, the complex thought of some authors such as Hume and Reid is covered in a very limited way.  We have included sections on political thought and economics, but as will be seen, they emerge from a foundation on moral philosophy, which was taught academically by four of our selected  authors. David Hume sought to obtain this sort of assignment, but was unsucssesful due to his views on religion Alexander Carlyle wrote an autobiography that provides useful context elements.

Government and Society

After several wars, Scotland was able to establish its political independence from England in the fourteenth century. Then in 1603, James VI, king of Scotland, inherited the crown of England, and his family ruled both kingdoms independently until 1707, when they were united into the Kingdom of Great Britain. The parliaments of both countries were then integrated into a single entity based in London. This was approved by the parliaments of both countries, although it did not have much popular support in Scotland. A source of friction was the difference in the established religions, Anglicanism in England and Presbyterianism in Scotland. Each region maintained its state religion, but to hold parliamentary office, which was now in London, Scottish officials had to participate in the Anglican sacraments. Catholics were not allowed to hold office anywhere in the Kingdom. Economically, Scotland benefited from unification due to increased commerce. Glasgow, as an Atlantic port, benefitted particularly from the trading with the American colonies.

An Academic Enlightenment

The Age of Enlightenment is a term used to describe a phase in the history of Western civilization, during the late seventeenth and the eighteenth centuries,  that emphasized rational thought and empirical observation. Although there were some common elements, there were also significant differences among the enlightenments in the different European countries. All of these movements were influenced by the scientific discoveries of the seventeenth century and the resulting confidence in human rationality. There was some interaction;  for example, Adam Smith and David Hume visited some of the leading figures of the French enlightenment and Ferguson was influenced by the writings of Montesquieu. The contention of this website, however, is that the Scottish Enlightenment was primarily an original development, spearheaded by Hutcheson, whose first major work (1725) anteceded those of most of the other European lights such as Voltaire (1733) and Rousseau (1736), and who was influenced by such diverse thinkers as Lord Shaftesbury (1671-1713) and Samuel von Pufendorf (1632-1694), as well as by the mainstream classical and medieval traditions.

One unique feature of the Scottish Enlightenment was its academic connection, primarily centered on the universities of Glasgow and Edinburgh. Historian Douglas Sloan has pointed out that after the unification of England and Scotland in 1707, the Scottish universities became a vehicle for maintaining Scottish identity.[1]

The development at Glasgow occurred earlier, lead by Hutcheson: "By his own example and by exerting a gentle pressure on his colleagues, Hutcheson became a driving force behind curriculum reform at Glasgow... He helped to appoint  other reform-minded  colleagues to important chairs. Glasgow University soon gained a reputation for academic excellence and learning."[2] In the words of Alexander Carlyle, who studied there in the 1740's, "the fame of Mr. Hutcheson had filled the college with students of philosophy..."[3] Robert Simson (1687-1768), a professor of mathematics at Glasgow during this period, was a distinguished mathematician, and he brought additional recognition to the university.

During the late seventeenth and early eighteenth century, The University of Leyden in Holland had the best medical school in Europe, and it included several Scotsmen in its faculty. When Edinburgh established a medical school in 1726, several of these returned to Scotland to join this faculty. By the second half of the eighteenth century, Edinburgh had surpassed Leyden in medical prestige, attracting numerous students for the whole continent and from America.[4] The rise of the medical school helped stimulate the rise of other related scientific disciplines.[5] The further development of the University of Edinburgh during the eighteenth century was a result of the accomplishments of what historian Richard Sher calls the "Moderate literati" circle headed by William Robertson, who was elected principal in 1762:

They were intimate friends who settled in the Edinburgh vicinity during the 1740s and the 1750s. They were affiliated with the moderate party in ecclesiastical affairs. They secured positions of prestige and authority in the Church of Scotland and the University of Edinburgh. They played decisive roles in the intellectual and cultural life of Scotland during the second half of the eighteenth century, both as ecclesiastical politicians and academic administrators and as men of letters in their own right... William Robertson and the 'little band of earnest men' who founded the Moderate party were conspicuous for their commitment to such polite, enlightened values as genteel manners, religious moderation and tolerance, and high esteem for scientific and literary accomplishments.[6]

Enlightened Religion

A philosophic approach to religion that has been called Deism emerged in Europe during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Its main tenets were a belief in a creator God who does not interfere with the events in its creation and the denial of any form of revelation. This thinking has been largely identified with the Enlightenment in general. But there were also parallel attempts to set Christianity on a more rational footing, through alternative interpretations of some of its teachings, and a lessening of dogmatism. This latter approach was more typical of the Scottish Enlightenment. The tone of this predominant attitude towards religion was provided by Francis Hutcheson:

It was owing to Hutcheson and  him [William Leechman] that a new school was formed in the western provinces of Scotland, where the clergy till that period were narrow and bigoted, and had never ventured to range in their mind beyond the bounds of strict orthodoxy. For though neither of these professors taught any heresy, yet they opened and enlarged the minds of the students, which soon gave them a turn for free inquiry; the result of which was, candour and liberality of sentiment.[7]

David Hume was often accused of being an atheist, but an analysis of his wrtings would negate this: "The whole frame of nature bespeaks an Intelligent Author; and no rational inquirer can, after serious reflection, suspend his belief a moment with regard to the primary principles of genuine Theism and Religion."[8] His writings are nevertheless  very critical of Christianity, and his close friendship with a group of Edinburgh clergymen presented a paradox, as attested by Alexander Carlyle, one of these friends: "He took much to the company of the younger clergy, not from a wish to bring them over to his opinions, for he never attempted to overturn any man's principles, but they best understood his notions, and could furnish him with literary conversation... This intimacy of the young clergy with David Hume enraged the zealots on the opposite side..." [9]

The Purpose of Moral Philosophy

A course on moral philosophy was a common element in the academic tradition of the West, with Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics as a popular text, and also influenced by Cicero's Offices. Francis Hutcheson taught this course at the University of Glasgow for many years and we have two versions of his lecture notes, which became important textbooks in their own right. We have records, for example, of their influence at early American  colleges.[10] In one of these textbooks, Hutcheson defines the purpose of the course:

The intention of Moral Philosophy is to direct men to that course of action which tends most effectually to promote their greatest happiness and perfection; as far as can be done by observations and conclusions discoverable from the constitution of nature, without any aids of supernatural revelation: these maxims, or rules of conduct are therefore reputed as laws of nature, and the system of collection of them is called the Law of Nature.[11]

Adam Ferguson also taught the course for many years at the University of Edinburgh, and he also left two versions of his lecture notes. These show the influence of Hutcheson, but he tries to provide what he considered to be a more "scientific" approach, based on observations and history:

Before we can ascertain rules of morality for mankind, the history of man s nature, his dispositions, his specific enjoyments and sufferings, his condition and future projects, should be known. From a proper collection of such materials, we should be able to ascertain what is best for mankind, and to assign to every particular in human life its comparative value and real place in the estimate of human affairs [12]

The course, as taught by Hutcheson and Ferguson, included, in addition to elements from the traditional Aristotelian ethics and politics, an introduction to legal principles and to what we would today call economics. Although these courses are not supposed to have recourse to "supernatural revelation" or religion, they freely refer to God, based on what they considered to be concepts that can be attained through reason, in what is sometimes called "natural theology", but in practice the Christian influence is evident.

[1] Douglas Sloan, The Scottish Universities in the Enlightenment (New York: Teachers College Press, Columbia University, 1971), 14.

[2] Arthur Herman. How the Scots Invented the Modern World (New York: Crown Publishers, 2001), 68.

[3] Alexander Carlyle, Autobiography of the Rev. Dr Carlyle, Second Edition (Edinburgh: William Blackwood and Sons, 1860), 82.

[4] Douglas Sloan, The Scottish Universities in the Enlightenment, 27, 187.

[5] Ibid., 27.

[6] Richard B. Sher, Church and University in the Scottish Enlightenment (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1985), 14, 57.

[7] Alexander Carlyle, Autobiography of the Rev. Dr Carlyle, Second edition (Edinburgh: William Blackwood and Sons, 1860), 84.

[8] David Hume, "The Natural History of Religion" in The Philosophical Works of David Hume (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1854), Vol. 4, 419-493, at 419.

[9] Carlyle, Autobiography, 274-275.

[10] Douglas Sloan, The Scottish Enlightenment and the American College Ideal (New York: Teachers College Press, Columbia University, 1971), 122-138.

[11] Francis Hutcheson, A System of Moral Philosophy (Glasgow: A Foulis, 1755), Vol. 1, 1.

[12] Adam Ferguson, Institutes of Moral Philosophy (Basil: James Decker: 1800), 10.