The Scottish Enlightenment: An Anthology

This anthology emphasizes the European dimension of the Enlightenment and also the diversity of interest and output of the Age of Reason. To many, the Enlightenment of the 18th century represents Scotland’s Golden Age. In philosophy, law, economics, politics, linguistics and the physical sciences, Scots were key players in changing the way the world was viewed. And the reverberations of this development of knowledge is still being felt today. This was the age of David Hume, Thomas Reid and Adam Smith, of Adam Ferguson, James Hutton and Sir John Sinclair with his achievement of the first statistical account. After a general introduction, the book is broken down thematically - Human Nature , Ethics , Aesthetics , Religion , Economics , Social Theory , and Politics , Law , Historiography and Science . These sections gather together the well known and the lesser known amongst the writing of the time. Much of the material has not been reprinted since the 18th century.