The Principles of ‘Natural History’

Abstract

There were certain underlying assumptions shared, in different degrees, by those who wrote about the study of society in eighteenth century Scotland. ‘Natural history’ or ‘philosophical’ history, was based firmly on moral philosophy, on a close examination of human nature; it also presupposed a certain methodological approach, and assumptions about the social nature of man, and about the direction of human progress. The principal writers on this subject were Lord Kames, Adam Smith, Adam Ferguson, William Robertson and John Millar (see Biographical Notes); a number of other minor writers, including Sir John Dalrymple (1726–1810), Lord Monboddo (1714–99), James Dunbar (?–1798), and Gilbert Stuart (1742–86) shared their interests and wrote on similar subjects.