A History of Scottish Philosophy

by Alexander Broadie

Overview

Winner of the Saltire Society Scottish History Book of the Year 2009.Shortlisted for the Saltire Society Scottish Research Book of the Year 2009. This book is unique in that it provides the first-ever substantial account of the seven-centuries-old Scottish philosophical tradition. The book focuses on a number of philosophers in the period from the later thirteenth century until the mid-twentieth and attends especially to some brilliantly original texts. The book also indicates ways in which philosophy has been intimately related to other aspects of Scotland's culture. Among the greatest philosophers that Scotland has produced are John Duns Scotus, Francis Hutcheson, David Hume, Adam Smith and Thomas Reid. But there were many other fine, even brilliant philosophers who are less highly regarded, if they are noticed at all, such as John Mair, George Lokert, Frederick Ferrier, Andrew Seth, Norman Kemp Smith and John Macmurray. All these thinkers and many others are discussed in these pages.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780748616282
Publisher:	Edinburgh University Press
Publication date:	02/15/2010
Pages:	400
Sales rank:	591,410
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.20(h) x 0.90(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Alexander Broadie is Professor of Logic and Rhetoric at the University of Glasgow

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements viii

1 Introduction 1

2 John Duns Scotus 7

Section 1 Life and works 7

Section 2 Talking about God 8

Section 3 Universals and individuals 13

Section 4 Will and intellect 18

Section 5 Scotus's political theory and the Declaration of Arbroath 25

3 The Fifteenth Century 34

Section 1 The context 34

Section 2 John Ireland and The Meroure of Wyssdome 35

Section 3 Freedom and good governance 36

Section 4 Freedom and foreknowledge 40

Section 5 The accession of rulers 44

4 The Circle of John Mair 47

Section 1 John Mair and his circle 47

Section 2 John Mair 48

Section 3 George Lokert 61

Section 4 William Manderston 71

Section 5 Robert Galbraith 81

5 Humanism and After 87

Section 1 Renaissance humanism arrives in Scotland 87

Section 2 Abbreviated logic 90

Section 3 Some Scottish Aristotelians 93

Section 4 Florentius Volusenus (Florence Wilson) 97

Section 5 Some seventeenth-century texts 99

6 Scotland Moves into the Age of Enlightenment 104

Section 1 Three philosophers 104

Section 2 Gershom Carmichael 104

Section 3 George Turnbull: Principles of Moral Philosophy 108

Section 4 George Turnbull: Christian Philosophy 117

Section 5 George Turnbull on art 120

Section 6 Francis Hutcheson on the idea of beauty 123

Section 7 Francis Hutcheson on the idea of virtue 133

7 David Hume 147

Section 1 A portrait of Hume 147

Section 2 Impressions and ideas 150

Section 3 Causation 160

Section 4 The external world 165

Section 5 Personal identity 168

Section 6 Passion and its slave 172

Section 7 The standard of taste 181

Section 8 The Treatise arid the Enquiries 183

Section 9 Hume 'the great infidel' 184

8 Adam Smith 196

Section 1 A portrait of Adam Smith 196

Section 2 Spectatorship and sympathy - Smith's context 200

Section 3 Sympathy and pleasure 207

Section 4 Sympathy and moral categories 210

Section 5 The impartial spectator 213

Section 6 Smith's moral naturalism 217

Section 7 Justice and the other virtues 218

Section 8 Scientific progress 223

Section 9 Morality, science and art 228

9 The Scottish School of Common Sense Philosophy 235

Section 1 Common sense and its criteria 235

Section 2 A portrait of Thomas Reid 238

Section 3 An anatomy of the mind — methodological preliminaries 243

Section 4 An anatomy of the mind - intellectual powers 246

Section 5 An anatomy of the mind - active powers 262

Section 6 An anatomy of the mind - the fine arts 270

Section 7 Lord Karnes and the question of free will 273

Section 8 George Campbell, common sense and language 280

Section 9 Dugald Stewart, common sense and mind 284

Section 10 Sir William Hamilton - a moment of transition 290

10 The Nineteenth Century: Ferrier to Seth 301

Section 1 What became of the Scottish Enlightenment? 301

Section 2 J. F. Ferrier and the philosophy of consciousness 304

Section 3 Alexander Bain and the empirical study of the mind 313

Section 4 Andrew Seth Pringle-Pattison and personal idealism 314

11 Realism and Idealism: Some Twentieth-century Narratives 324

Section 1 Introduction 324

Section 2 Aspects of realism: Norman Kemp Smith, John Anderson and John Laird 325

Section 3 Aspects of idealism: H. J. Paton, C. A. Campbell and John Macmurray 339

12 Conclusion 365

Bibliography 370

Index 381

What People are Saying About This

Knud Haakonssen

In the many histories of 'Scottish philosophy' nobody has previously covered its full seven centuries. Few, if anybody, could do so with the authority of Alexander Broadie. He is equally at home in medieval logic, post-Reformation humanism, the Scottish Enlightenment, the forgotten 19th-century eclecticism and the ignored 20th-century struggle between realism and idealism. A generous history of a national philosophical culture and an original contribution to that culture.

Editorial Reviews

The summaries of the different philosophical positions are lucid, balanced, and fair. They provide very useful introductions to the thought of the philosophers discussed in the book. Someone interested in the background of Hume and Reid and looking for a first orientation could do a lot worse than consulting this book.

Journal of the History of Philosophy - Manfred Kuehn

In the many histories of 'Scottish philosophy' nobody has previously covered its full seven centuries. Few, if anybody, could do so with the authority of Alexander Broadie. He is equally at home in medieval logic, post-Reformation humanism, the Scottish Enlightenment, the forgotten 19th-century eclecticism and the ignored 20th-century struggle between realism and idealism. A generous history of a national philosophical culture and an original contribution to that culture.

Knud Haakonssen

A profound history by the recognised master in the field.

Professor Ted Cowan

[A] magisterial study...Today's philosophers in Scottish universities should make a point of reading Broadie's wise and wonderful book. They cannot fail to learn from it.

The Scotsman

Broadie’s book is impressive in many ways… Scottish philosophy … has been rich and sophisticated for some seven centuries – arguably one of the longest periods of relatively sustained investigations of any peoples in the world. Alexander Broadie is to be thanked for vividly reminding us of this remarkable achievement.

Journal of Scottish Philosophy

It's fascinating to chart the history of Scotland's contribution to philosophy ... there is no sense of unevenness or disproportion in Broadie's meticulous work.

Scottish Review of Books

This is an important and impressive book... The extent of his research and the depth of his erudition is impressive.

The Herald - Paul Henderson Scott