David Hume (1711–1776) believed a ‘confederacy of authors’, brought together by the notoriously pugnacious William Warburton (1698–1779), were his most consistent and scurrilous critics. Warburton and his ‘School’ were Hume’s bêtes noires and embodied so much of what he fought against. Only there is reason to believe that the ‘Warburtonian School’ was more a useful fiction than a historical reality. The following deep dive into Humeana and the ‘stuff of anecdote’ digs up substantial conclusions about Hume’s philosophical project and context. (...) Any glorifying picture of Hume admirably ignoring sustained ‘Warburtonian’ name-calling is not an accurate description of the early reception of his writings. Hume did respond – at least, occasionally, privately and publicly. Moreover, the ‘Warburtonian School’ does not seem to exist – at least, it did not exist if it is taken to refer to a coherent group of writers, numbering more than two, concerned with attacking Hume. The response to Hume of ‘Warburtonians’ who can be identified was varied, disparate, and often positive. Warburton even came to like Hume’s historical writings. Hume’s claim that such a School existed may have led to the post hoc creation of the School in the minds of late eighteenth- and nineteenth-century commentators. (shrink)

SummaryThis article argues that Archibald Campbell's Necessity of Revelation can be viewed as the first application of the ‘science of human nature’, a characteristic branch of the Scottish Enlightenment, to the study of religious belief. Adopting Baconian and Newtonian methodological principles, Campbell set hypotheses, collected historical data, and inferred conclusions about the capabilities of human nature to come to fundamental religious ideas without the aid of revelation. He did so not only to reject the ‘deist’ position on the powers of (...) unassisted human reason, associated with Matthew Tindal's Christianity as Old as the Creation, but also to refute Campbell's conservative critics within the Church of Scotland who had earlier tried him for heresy. Campbell's example is that of a university professor using the experimental study of religion to defeat both radical freethinking and Calvinist orthodoxy. His work is another instance of the complicated relationship between science and religion within eighteenth-century Scotland. (shrink)

ABSTRACT The Scottish judge and ‘eccentric’ philosopher James Burnett, Lord Monboddo’s (1714–1799) significance within Enlightenment thought is usually seen as stemming from his Origin and Progress of Language (6 vols., 1773–1792). The OPL was a major contribution to the Enlightenment’s debate over the philosophy of language, and established Monboddo’s reputation as an innovative and influential, yet controversial and credulous proto-anthropologist. In the following I explore Monboddo’s Egyptomania and the role it plays in his account of the origins and development of (...) religion within his larger ‘History of Man’. Monboddo’s idiosyncratic and untimely fusion of conjectural history, Buffon-inspired natural history, Christian theology, Platonic and Aristotelian philosophy and credulous interest in Egyptology, especially in Antient Metaphysics (6 vols., 1779–1799), make him extremely difficult to place within the Scottish Enlightenment. I want to bring Monboddo back into our conversation about the Scottish Enlightenment, shed light in the process on his highly idiosyncratic combination of enlightened and unenlightened thought and, using Monboddo’s example, emphasize some interesting if unexpected aspects of the Scottish Enlightenment’s application of the ‘science of human nature’ to the study of religion. For Monboddo, human civilization and religious knowledge owes their existence to Egyptian daemon-kings. (shrink)

This study examines the leading early nineteenth-century Scottish moral philosopher Dugald Stewart’s discussion of the origin and development of religion. Stewart developed his account in his final work, The Philosophy of the Active and Moral Powers of Man (1828), in an effort to show that the fact that polytheism was the first religion of humankind does not undermine the truth of monotheism. He wrote in response to similar discussions presented in David Hume’s “Natural History of Religion” (1757), which argued for (...) the primacy of polytheism, and Stewart’s old moral philosophy tutor Adam Ferguson’s Principles of Moral and Political Science (1792), which argued for the primacy of monotheism. Stewart accepted the conclusions of the Scots’ enlightened study of religion, which argued for truth of Hume’s account, but aimed to reassert many of the natural theological arguments about the naturalness of religion that the “Natural History” had challenged. Stewart’s discussion acts as a useful way by which we can assess the achievement of the literati’s study of religion. (shrink)

ABSTRACT Professor of Moral Philosophy at Marischal College, Aberdeen, James Beattie (1735–1803) was one of the most prominent literary figures of late eighteenth-century Britain. His major works, An Essay on the Nature and Immutability of Truth (1770) and the two-canto poem The Minstrel (1771–1774), were two of the best-sellers of the Scottish Enlightenment and were key to Beattie’s role in the emergence of both the ‘Scottish School’ of Common Sense Philosophy and British Romanticism. Intellectual history scholarship on the Scottish Enlightenment (...) has tended to discuss Beattie in terms of his relationship to his fellow Aberdonian Thomas Read. While clearly important, his link with Reid does not exhaust our potential interest in Beattie. This article explores his extensive engagement with the thought of Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778). In the process, it is argued that the Genevan’s works – especially the Confession of the Savoyard Vicar in Emile (1762) – played an important though little noticed role in both Beattie’s rhetoric and anti-scepticism in both the Essay and Minstrel. Moreover, Beattie’s initially praising stance on Rousseau as a potential friend to true religion indicates the complexity of the reception of the Genevan’s works in late eighteenth-century Britain. (shrink)

SummaryThis article examines the Scottish philosopher James Beattie's controversial work of moral philosophy An Essay on the Nature and Immutability of Truth, noted for its pugnacious attack on the sceptical philosophy of David Hume. Usually treated only as an ephemeral success in the early 1770s, the Essay actually had two distinct periods of enormous popularity that account for its contemporary significance in the period between 1770 and 1830. The prominence of the Essay is demonstrated by its widespread positive reception, evinced (...) in both published and private responses, in both England and Scotland, by the high estimation in which it was held within pedagogical circles as an anti-sceptical philosophical primer, and by its continual use as a textbook in both university and dissenting academy logic and moral philosophy classes. In these senses, Beattie's Essay was arguably the most significant work of the Common Sense School of Scottish philosophy. (shrink)

Mourant has provided a carefully edited, topically organized anthology. The introductions are clearly written. One still waits, however, for an Augustinian anthology which reveals, rather than conceals Augustine's development.—R. J. W.

Originally published 1972.This book concerns the progressive movement, its prominent thinkers and its achievements, at a period of vital change in English primary education. The role of progressive educationists, such as Lane, Neill and Montessori is considered. The author asserts that these pioneers gradually made themselves the intellectual orthodoxy in the years between the wars.

The Modern University and its Discontents: The Fate of Newman's Legacies in Britain and America. By Sheldon Rothblatt (Cambridge, University Press, 1997) xiv + 461 pp. £45.00 cloth.

ABSTRACT Joseph Addison played a key role in Nicholas Phillipson's pioneering studies of eighteenth-century Scottish culture and philosophy. Post-Union Scots were in search of renewed civic purpose now political power had headed to Westminster. They found it in Addison's Spectator essays discussing virtuous living. This article pays homage to Phillipson's work by expanding the scope of the study of Addison's reception in eighteenth-century Scotland. A survey of the publishing history of Addison's works north of the border indicates additional roles for (...) the English essayist in Scotland. Addison's political works, especially his tragedy Cato, were drawn on by pro-Unionists and anti-Jacobites. His religious writings were held in high regard, while both High Flying and Moderate churchmen imitated his style. Addison was important as important within Scottish aesthetics as he was within the Humean discourse of civic morality, though, as with Hume's and Smith's treatment of Addison, Scottish aestheticists quickly superseded Addison's discussion of the ‘pleasures of the imagination’. There are, then, several additional ‘Addisons’ on top of those identified by Phillipson. (shrink)

Gibbon was a far more subtle, serious and empathetic historian of the triumph of Christianity than his reputation as a sneering infidel historian implies, or so argues Liebert in this short and wel...

The paradox that has challenged historians of abolitionism is how Britain’s outlawing of trafficking of enslaved Africans in 1807 could take place when the country’s involvement in the trade was as...

This book examines how enlightened Scottish social theorists c.1740 to c.1800 understood the origin and development of religion. Challenging scholarly disregard for the topic, it shows how most prominent thinkers of the Scottish Enlightenment thought deeply about the relationship between religion, human nature and historical change. The Scots viewed this relationship as an important strand within the study of the 'science of human nature' and the 'history of man.' The fruits of this investigation were a sophisticated and innovative account of (...) religious change that is characterized by a striking modernity and naturalism, even by the more devout theorists. The views of the literati surveyed here need to be incorporated into our larger histories of the 'science of religion' as much as they do into our understanding of the social theory of the Scottish Enlightenment. (shrink)

ABSTRACT This article recovers the discussion of the relationship between religion, human nature and happiness in the Scottish Enlightenment physician John Gregory’s (1724–1773) A Comparative View of Human Nature (1765). Through examining Gregory’s best-selling but understudied text, this article explores how the Aberdeen Enlightenment’s own branch of the wider Scottish ‘science of human nature’, centred at the famous Aberdeen Philosophical Society, was as deeply concerned with the study of religion as it was the philosophy of mind. Gregory examined how the (...) purported cultural spread of dogmatic scepticism, associated by the Aberdonians with David Hume, threatened individual happiness and social tranquillity by removing the crutch of religious belief upon which the multitude (though not the philosopher) depended. In doing so, it suggests that the contribution made by physicians to the Scottish Enlightenment’s engagement with religion has been unjustly ignored. (shrink)

Volume 28, Issue 1, January 2020, Page 202-204.

This study argues that the English-born, Edinburgh-educated and Bath-based physician William Falconer (1744–1824) authored the only stadial history published during the British Enlightenment that analysed the influence of socio-economic context upon religious belief. A survey of the conjectural histories of religion written by the leading literati demonstrates that discussion of religion by the Scottish literati was undertaken separate from the “Scottish narrative” of stadial economic and political progress. We have to turn to Falconer’s Remarks on the Influence of Climate (1781) (...) to see a four-stage history of religion that related belief and practice to wider social and economic developments. While heavily derivative of Montesquieu’s De l’Esprit des Lois (1748), Falconer’s Remarks has some claim to theoretical innovation and used his conjectural history to tell a story of English (not British) religious exceptionalism. Moreover, the work was received as a serious contribution to the late Enlightenment’s science of human nature and society. (shrink)

R J W Evans: Political Chronology; IntroductionJan Rychlík: Czech-Slovak Relations in Czechoslovakia, 1918-39Eagle Glassheim: Ambivalent Capitalists: The Roots of Fascist Ideology among Bohemian Nobles, 1880-1938Melissa Feinberg: The New 'Woman Question': Gender, Nation, and Citizenship in the First Czechoslovak RepublicRobert B. Pynsent: The Literary Representation of the Czechoslovak 'Legions' in RussiaCatherine Albrecht: Economic Nationalism in the Sudetenland, 1918-38R.J.W. Evans: Hungarians, Czechs and Slovaks: Some Mutual Perceptions, 1900-50Mark Cornwall: 'A Leap into Ice-Cold Water': the Manoeuvres of the Henlein Movement in Czechoslovakia, 1933-8Vít (...) Smetana: Old Wine in New Bottles? British Policy towards Czechoslovakia, 1938-9 and 1947-8Tatjana Tönsmeyer: The German Advisers in Slovakia, 1939-45: Conflict or Co-Operation?Mark Dimond: The Sokol and Czech Nationalism, 1918-48Jiri Kocian: The Czechs versus the Slovaks: Bilateral Relations, 1944-8Zdenk Radvanovský: The Transfer of Czechoslovakia's Germans and its Impact in the Border Region after the Second World WarKeith Robbins: Britain and Munich Reconsidered: A Personal Historical Journey. (shrink)

The product of the seventh symposium of New York University's Institute of Philosophy, this volume centers on three topics: grounds for judgment of artistic excellence, interpretation of meaning in art criticism, and art and reality. Each of the three sections features a lead paper, followed by a series of comments. Issues raised by the main papers are quite thoroughly explored, but sometimes one wishes that provocative suggestions made in commentary were taken up by other participants.—R. J. W.

This volume is based on a sharp distinction between the history of philosophy and the history of ideas. Its essays on the major philosophers of past and present make little attempt to trace historical connections, but rather concentrate on exposition and criticism. In general the individual authors are experts on the philosophers they discuss, and the level of the exposition is high. Most of the contributors are British, and practitioners of the method of linguistic analysis. This gives the volume a (...) rather tendentious tone.—R. J. W. (shrink)

For many years scholars have paid lip service to the "dramatic" or "mimetic" character of Plato's dialogues, but too few have taken this character seriously. Klein does, making it the basis of his exposition. He convincingly demonstrates that the dramatic action and the topic discussed are tightly interwoven and must be taken together to understand the Meno. In his introduction he distinguishes three kinds of mimesis: ethological, doxological, and mythological. The Meno is interpreted as primarily ethological. But one can ask (...) whether the author has done justice to the doxological element in the dialogue. He places considerable emphasis on the character of the "historical" Meno and does not seem to consider seriously the possibility that Meno's responses to Socrates show that he is learning something about the nature of ἀρετή. To suggest a possible criticism is in no way to take issue with the major thesis of this thorough and imaginative study.—R. J. W. (shrink)

A well-written introductory and historical survey of the dialogue between Christianity and philosophy, with primary emphasis on the early Fathers, Augustine and Aquinas. Although the preface suggests that the dialogue is a continuing one, many of the essays treat it as ending with Aquinas. One wishes that more account had been taken of modern criticism of the early theological development and of modern Biblical theology. The last two chapters do this and are helped by it.—R. J. W.

By restricting the subject matter of this anthology to creativity, the editor has succeeded in assembling a good and useful book. Essays by philosophers are combined with some by artists. The result is a fairly clear statement of the issues, and of a number of differing, though related, solutions.--R. J. W.

This seventh John Dewey Lecture brings together the existentialist concern for "the meaning of life" with the analytical interest in precision in linguistic meanings. The treatment is provocative, though schematic. A brief analysis of "the meaning of life" is given, and then applied to education with considerable insight.—R. J. W.

A lively and sympathetic critique of the ecumenical movement, emphasizing that unity is a Christian goal only as it contributes to the Church's ability to fulfill its mission. There is a good discussion of the significance of Roman Catholic and Orthodox participation in what was originally a Protestant movement. Marty's thesis is that enough unity has been attained now to get on with the mission.--R. J. W.

Those who find Buber's mature works, especially I and Thou, difficult will benefit from this early book. In it one can see Buber struggling with the same problems in a way which focuses them more clearly than in later works, even if the solution is less satisfactory. The translation is lucid, and the introduction is a substantial essay which provides an excellent entrée to Buber's thought, as well as to this book.—R. J. W.

The author of Plato's Use of Fallacy has provided a felicitous new translation of the Euthydemus. Notes are supplied to explain arguments which depend on peculiarities of Greek. The introduction points out, but deliberately avoids settling, questions raised by the dialogue, allowing Plato to speak for himself.—R. J. W.

Lest one be misled by the title, this book is not a study of the social responsibilities of scientists. It is a careful, provocative argument that the formal structures of scientific theory and ethical theory are analogous. The most interesting and far-reaching analogy developed by Dr. Margenau is between the fundamental postulates of theoretical science and the primary values of ethics. The author argues that primary values cannot be derived from something else, but must be postulated. He further sees an (...) empirical relationship between these values and ethical imperatives, which provides the key to the possibility of validating ethical theories.—R. J. W. (shrink)

A collection of essays attempting to show the adequacy of Christianity as a total world-view. The essays are more meditative than reflective, more confessional than critical.--R. J. W.

An anthology of essays by Aristotle, Mill, Carroll, Dewey, Russell, Veatch and Ryle, with a brief background statement on each author. Most of the essays are concerned with the relationship of logic to philosophy.--R. J. W.

The authors have attempted a sustained exploration of the cluster of problems involved in the relationship between Christian faith and intellectual integrity. They alternate brief essays, each picking up where the other left off. The latter sections tend to become somewhat technical for a book intended for use by undergraduate students, but there is some fruitful philosophical encounter which could make this book useful in courses in the philosophy of religion.--R. J. W.