The Scottish Enlightenment in Germany — Stages of Reception

Abstract

The aim of the present chapter is to document and analyse some crucial elements of the general influence of the Scottish Enlightenment in Germany. An overall account of the reception of Scottish thought in Germany would be a full-blown topic in its own right and cannot be given here,1 but a number of aspects of this reception can be dealt with briefly: (A) the contemporary translations; (B) the reviews; (C) the popularizations; (D) the impact on teaching. Although these aspects may be no more than case studies, their choice is not arbitrary: taken together, they provide an outline of the increasingly strong influence of the Scottish authors. Needless to say, not every book occurs at each level, and often, the four stages overlap chronologically, but, by and large, they constitute a valid pattern. In conclusion, this pattern is then complemented by examples of the contacts which eminent individual thinkers had with Scottish philosophy. Thus, a wider framework for Hegel’s intellectual contacts with Scottish social philosophy may be provided. The three initial sections (A), (B), and (C) consist of evaluations of the actual data collected and should be read side by side with the bibliographical appendices I–III.