Enlightenment, Scottish

Abstract

Abstract The Scottish Enlightenment was a period of intense intellectual activity in Scotland during the eighteenth century. Its major figures include Francis Hutcheson (1694–1746), Henry Home, Lord Kames (1696–1782), Thomas Reid (1710–96), David Hume (1711–76), Adam Smith (1723–90), Adam Ferguson (1723–1816), and John Millar (1735–1802). The Scottish Enlightenment thinkers have proven hugely influential in the history of ideas, both in their own age and in subsequent generations. Hume gained popularity in France, where he associated with French Enlightenment thinkers such as Denis Diderot. The French philosophes came to think so highly of the Scots that Voltaire even proclaimed, “it is to Scotland that we look for our idea of civilization.” The Scots also influenced the US founders: Hutcheson's work was admired by Thomas Jefferson and Reid's work by James Wilson. Benjamin Franklin traveled to Scotland and befriended Kames, whose legal writings he recommended to American judges. The Scots continue to exert their influence today. They have been identified as the founders of the social sciences, such as sociology and economics. Many of their intellectual insights in these fields still stand – for instance, much of Smith's writing on economics forms the foundation of economic thinking today.