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Hume and His Critics !! |
PHILOSOPHY 5320
This seminar will be concerned with an in depth study of the philosophy of David Hume. We will read a number of his major works. We will also discuss the way Hume's work was "followed up" by his friend Adam Smith, and the criticisms made of Hume's work by Campbell, Beattie, and (especially) Reid. It is hoped that we can also discuss the reception of Hume's work on the continent (especially in Germany) and in America.
Books to buy (in the order in which they will be read):
- Hume -- A Treatise of Human Nature (this work will be discussed, but is not required reading, and purchase is therefore optional).
- Hume -- Inquiry Concerning Human Understanding.
- Hume--Inquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals.
- Hume -- Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion.
- Reid -- Inquiry into the Human Mind.
- Smith -- Theory of Moral Sentiments.
Class Procedure--
Please be ready to discuss these! I'm too old to give 2-1/2 hour lectures. Your grade will be determined by your class participation, and a term paper to be turned in sometime near the end of the course. The paper should show that you've read something, and thought about what you have read.
Rather than preparing a syllabus, I am getting together a bibliographical essay, which I hope will be a useful reading guide.
HUME
and His Critics:a Bibliographical Essay!! |
You may have assumed that the greatest scholar ever to do philosophy in the English language must be a member of the current Baylor department. Perhaps so, but many people think the greatest ever may have been David Hume. Since that is the case, the literature is vast. This bibliographical essay is not, therefore, meant to be exhaustive. For the most part, it is made up of books that have been helpful to me. Periodicals have lots of things on Hume, too; readers need only look under "Hume" in the Philosopher's Index or in the annual The Eighteenth Century: A Current Bibliography. Actually, there is a special journal, which now has an archival project, Hume Studies, devoted to this great philosopher's work. Through the new archival project, anyone can have access to volumes 1-10; members of the Hume Society can get the rest---Baylor students can find it all in our Periodical Room!
Contents: |
Scottish Philosophy in the 19th Century
Carmichael and Hutcheson--and Others
Scottish Philosophy in America
Concluding Nonphilosophical Comments
Also, any decent history of philosophy will have a chapter on Hume, and there are dozens of those. Of course, the real gold mine is Fifty Years of Hume Scholarship: a Bibliographical Guide by Roland Hall (Edinburgh University Press, 1978).The latest good news is that the Baylor libraries now have access to the Past Masters database, which includes the Complete Works of David Hume, full-text, on-line. Wow!! Now you have it all!!
The Scottish Enlightenment
Hume needs to be placed in the context of something called the "Scottish Enlightenment" (a second site features a very helpful paper on "The Scottish Contribution to the Enlightenment," by John Robertson).This was a truly amazing flowering of culture in Eighteenth Century Scotland. The Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy online also has an item on the Scottish Enlightenment.There are various ways to get better acquainted with this historical movement; here are a few suggestions that might prove useful::


As the picture above indicates, 2003 saw the publication of The Cambridge Companion to the Scottish Enlightenment (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), edited by Alexander Broadie!!

Also worth consulting are:
Other useful books relating the Scottish Enlightenment to specific areas of thought are:
We keep turning up many fine collections of essays by distinguished scholars on Hume and his critics. One of the best is Hume and Hume's Connexions, edited by M. A. Stewart and John P. Wright (The Pennsylvania State University Press, University Park, Pennsylvania, 1994). More may be expected soon.
Also relevant are a couple of unusual things I managed to obtain through the James Thin bookstore in Edinburgh, The Aberdeen Enlightenment, the Arts Curriculum in the Eighteenth Century by Paul B. Wood (Aberdeen University Press, Aberdeen, 1993) and The Glasgow Enlightenment edited by Andrew Hook and Richard B. Sher (Tuckwell Press, East Lothian, Scotland, 1995). Another most unusual addition to the literature is The Minutes of the Aberdeen Philosophical Society, 1758-1773, edited by H. Lewis Ulman (Aberdeen University Press, Aberdeen, 1990). The Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy online has an entry by Paul Wood on the Aberdeen Philosophical Society.
Oh, the title is far too ambitious, but you might also look at my early effort,"Eighteenth-Century Scottish Philosophy: Its Impact on the American West," The Southwestern Journal of Philosophy, Vol. VI, No. 1, Winter, 1975, pp. 131-148.
And a book I have to have is Why Scottish Philosophy Matters, by Alexander Broadie, The Saltire Society, Edinburgh, 2000.
Of more general interest is a book of popular history I enjoyed reading, How the Scots Invented the Modern World, by Arthur Herman (New York: Crown Publishers, 2001). Of special interest is chapter 8, "A Select Society: Adam Smith and His Friends," pp. 161-191.
I sometimes think we overlook the obvious. Actually, a good place to begin reading for this course is Volume Five, Hobbes to Hume, of Frederick Copleston's multi-volume History of Philosophy (London:Burns and Oates, Ltd., 1961). The book has 4 chapters on Hume, and a concluding chapter, "For and Against Hume" (pp. 354-394), which could serve as an outline for my course. The book also has a useful, if somewhat dated, bibliography.
And if you wish to be a bit more "high tech," the University of Edinburgh has a series of lectures you can hear on the Enlightenment, concentrating on Adam Ferguson, Joseph Black, David Hume, and Adam Smith. The ones on Smith feature a "streaming Video."
Hume's biography, as well as those of many of his friends and critics - including Adam Smith and Thomas Reid - may also be found in The Scottish Philosophy by James McCosh (1875, reprinted Georg Olms, 1966). Also fun to read is Lord Kames and the Scotland of his Day by Ian Simpson Ross (Oxford, 1972).
Three other good, fun to read, books on the biography of Hume and his critics are :
David Hume--General Sources |
In Hume studies, the most exciting news is the publication of new scholarly editions of the Enquiries by Oxford University Press, the Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals (1998), and the Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (1999), both edited by Tom L. Beauchamp. These are really excellent new editions. The best news is they have now published what promises to be a very useful new edition -possibly the best available-of The Treatise of Human Nature , edited,with all sorts of helps, by David Fate Norton and Mary J. Norton. (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2000).
The Liberty Press publishes, as is well known, the best edition if Hume's Essays: Moral, Political, and Literary, edited by Eugene F. Miller. This edition is now available on-line, in a very user-friendly format!! Actually, as of February, 2006, a number of Hume's works are to be found online at the Liberty Fund siite!!

There is a lot of help on the web. I have been amazed by the amount of material on the World Wide Web related to our study of Hume and his critics. And we should make use of it. But certain warnings are in order. Sometimes, my students seem to treat material on the Web as they treat quotations from books. But there is a great difference. If I quote something from p. 17 of a book published in 1934, there is a sense in which that citation, if correct, can stand forever. But websites are not like that. It is notorious that they are not subject to peer review, and so-called E-texts of the works of major philosophers rarely bother to supply readers with bibliographic data. In a sense, putting up a website is more like putting a sign in your front yard. The sign can be moved, altered, revised, taken down, etc. And when it's gone--it's gone. But for all that, this wealth of material should be utilized. So, with regard to Hume and his critics, where do we begin? If I may be so bold, maybe a good starting point could be the material I did (with the help of my colleague Scott Moore) on the "Westminster Theological Seminary in Britain." The tour group spends about half its time in Scotland, so I have provided links to Scottish tourist info, but also to material on the history and religion of Scotland which the student may find useful. Recall that Hume lived much of his life in Edinburgh, the center of the Scottish Enlightenment. Hume may have rebelled against religion, but he was also, his whole life, preoccupied with it. One small item that might be worth exploring is that, as a young man, Hume may have heard Thomas Boston preach. But where do we go then? It might be good to start with an overview of 18th century sources in philosophy, before getting specific, and moving on to David Hume.You might also consult the David Hume Project at Leeds, which includes some secondary sources that look very good. Next move on to the Hume Society pages, to find all the latest goings on in Hume scholarship, and even pictures of Hume, and the Hume tomb in the old Calton Hill burial ground in Edinburgh. Anything we might have missed can be found in the very complete Ty's David Hume Homepage, kept by D. Tyarium Lightner. This is the most thorough Hume page with links to everything--E-texts, secondary sources, Hume's books-in-print, and much, much more.
I don't know that I would call it "one-stop shopping", but the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy now has no less tham 5 entries on Hume:
As should have been expected, the Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy online has an excellent entry by Annette Baier, with a very good bibliography.
Speaking of bibliographies, a good place to start your own Hume studies might be to look at D.C. Yalden-Thomson, "Recent Work on Hume (A survey of Hume Literature: 1969-1979)," American Philosophical Quarterly, Vol. 30, no. 1, January, 1983, pp. 1-22. More recently, Thoemmes Press has permitted (and financed) the publication of a bibliography of the works of Hume, and early responses to them, online, as a pdf. file--very useful!!
David Hume has been the subject of possibly the best biography ever done on a philosopher, The Life of David Hume by Ernest Campbell Mossner (Oxford, second edition, 1970). For an earlier and less adequate treatment, see David Hume by Henry Calderwood (Famous Scots Series, Edinburgh, 1898). A rather good early biography was the Life and Correspondence of David Hume, by John Hill Burton , two volumes (Edinburgh, 1846). If you lack the time to read two fat volumes, read the unsigned review that appeared in The Edinburgh Review, Vol.85-86, January, 1847, pp.1-72 (You really need to download this whole article as a pdf. file from PCI Full Text!!). I have finally found a Hume biography on-line that also has a timeline of convenient dates included.
One of the best books on Hume's cultural and philosophical background is Peter Jones' Hume's Sentiments: Their Ciceronian and French Context (Edinburgh University Press, 1982).

Permit me to insert here the fact that, in 1997, the Saltire Society had a statue erected in Edinburgh, at the top of the Mound, honoring Hume (I'm not sure I like it) for his unique contributions to Scotland's culture.
There are a large number of "general" works on Hume. Among these are:

A student in my seminar also located a couple of "oldie but goodie" items:
Since I first began to do the course on "Hume and His Critics," just a few years ago, there have appeared quite a number of good books on Hume. Another "oldie but goodie" that has resurfaced as a Garland reprint, (1983) is Charles W. Hendel's Studies in the Philosophy of David Hume, (Bobbs - Merrill Company, Inc., 1963). This book was first published in 1924, and the reprint has a useful "Review of Hume Scholarship, Since 1925."
Much more recent are:
There are also innumerable collections of essays, many related to the Hume "bicentennial" in 1976. Among these are:
Obviously, a number of good articles on Hume--many too many to list-- have appeared in the learned journals. One that caught my eye because it deals with a neglected part of of Hume's work is John Immerwahr's "Hume's Dissertation on the Passions," Journal of the History of Philosophy, Vol. XXXII, No. 2, April, 1994, pp. 225-240.
There are a number of new secondary sources on Hume. One of the best is Freedom and Moral Sentiment: Hume's Way of Naturalizing Responsibility by Paul Russell (Oxford University Press, New York, 1995). We keep turning up many fine collections of essays by distinguished scholars on Hume and his critics. One of the best is Hume and Hume's Connexions, edited by M. A. Stewart and John P. Wright (The Pennsylvania State University Press, University Park, Pennsylvania, 1994). More may be expected soon.
Of special interest, at Baylor especially, is a recent essay on Hume's ethics: Margaret Watkins Tate, "Obligation, Justice, and the Will in Hume's Moral Philosophy," Hume Studies, Vol. 31, No. 1, April, 2005, pp. 93-122.

Hume--Special Interests |
There are also many studies of special areas of Hume's thought. Among these are:
The Fall term of 1994 was eventful for Hume studies at Baylor because Robert J. Fogelin of Dartmouth College was here in late September as Robert Foster Cherry Lecturer in Philosophy. Professor Fogelin has a book on Hume, Hume's Skepticism in the Treatise of Human Nature (Routledge & Kegan Paul, London, 1985). Also, his more recent Philosophical Interpretations (Oxford University Press, New York, 1992) is a collection of fifteen of his essays, six of which are concerned with Hume. Fogelin has a new book, A Defense of Hume on Miracles (Princeton University Press, 2003). "Hume's Skepticism," by Fogelin, appears in the extremely important Cambridge Companion to Hume (Cambridge University Press, New York, 1993), edited by David Fate Norton. The Cambridge Companion also has significant essays on other aspects of Hume's work by Norton, Terence Penelhum, Andrew Skinner, Peter Jones, and C. A. Gaskin, etc.
A.J. Ayer's 1980 volume (see above) has been reissued, with a new look, as Hume: a Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press, 2000.
Also, I have not read it yet (working on it!), but I am impressed by a new "Routledge Philosophy Guidebook to..." Hume on Morality by James Baillie, Routledge, London, 2000. In the same series, I find listed a Hume on Knowledge by Harold W. Noonan, which I have not (as of February, 2001) yet seen.

Hume and Religion |
A Special Word on the Dialogues...Since Baylor University, where I teach, is a religious school, it is no surprize that my students show special interest in Hume's Dialogues Concernng Natural Religion (and perhaps also his essay ,"Of Miracles," which is Section 10 of Hume's An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding. You can, of course, find more than one edition of the Dialogues online...For example, the Liberty Fund apparently plans to have the complete works of Hume online, and that includes the Dialogues...
In the Dialogues, the three principal characters are Demea, Cleanthes, and Philo. Demea argues that the existence of God can best be demonstrated with a priori arguments. Cleanthes argues that a posteriori arguments are needed, while Philo is skeptical of the entire process. It is usually assumed (though philosophers rarely agree on anything) that Philo's arguments are those of Hume himself.
When we think of a priori arguments for the existence of God today, we usually have in mind the writings of St. Anselm, and his "ontological argument." May I insert here that I recently (July, 2000) read an interesting, non-technical, book on Anselm, Anselm, the Joy of Faith, by William H. Shannon (Crossroad Publishing Company, New york,1999). But Hume probably had in mind the writings of Samuel Clarke. I finally found what seems to be a good item on Clarke online!!). Good students will dash out and buy his A Demonstration of the Being and Attributes of God, and Other Writings, edited by Ezio Vailati, in the Cambridge History of Philosophy series ( Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1998). Lazy websurfers will find there is precious little on Samuel Clarke on the Web, but the book cited above is available there.
Hume's model for Cleanthes was probably Bishop Joseph Butler. I have found a marvelous new site on Butler that has just everything, from biographical info to a super bibliography of this important thinker that Hume admired so much. My students will want to focus on his major work on natural theology, the Analogy of Religion. Many of Cleanthes' arguments were later to be used by William Paley, especially in his Natural Theology of 1802. This may only show that Paley was not an original thinker; his gift was that of putting arguments in a clear, and teachable, way- why else would his works have been popular textbooks- for more than a hundred years !?!
The literature on this topic is vast. A good place to start might be a book entitled In Defense of Miracles: a Comprehensive Case for God's Action in History, edited by R. Douglas Geivett & Gary R. Habermas, InterVarsity Press, 1997. Another good, but difficult, book on Hume and miracles is Hume's Abject Failure: the Argument Against Miracles by John Earman, Oxford University Press, 2000. Yet another good book on Hume's religious views is Religion and Hume's Legacy, edited by D.Z. Phillips and Timothy Tessin, St. Martin's Press, New York, 1999.
Going back a bit, some really damning criticism of Hume on Religion can be found in James Orr, David Hume and His Influence on Philosophy and Theology (Bristol:: Thoemmes Attiquarian Books, Ltd., 1990, first published, 1903). Of course, Hume was criticized in his own day by George Campbell, who, in 1762, published A Dissertation on Miracles (reissued New York and London: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1983).
The best recent book I have read on Hume and religion is Religion and Faction in Hume's Moral Philosophy by Jennifer A. Herdt (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1997).
This is, as of 2002, still a work in progress, but the Thoemmes Press is producing an extremely comprehensive series of books made up of Early Responses to Hume, edited by Prof. James Fieser, of the University of Tennessee at Martin. These include two big volumes of Early Responses to Hume's Writings on Religion (Bristol: Thoemmes Press, 2001). Invaluable!!
Also of great importance to us, Prof Fieser has edited 5 (5!!) volumes of Scottish Common Sense Philosophy: Sources and Origins (Bristol: Thoemmes Press, 2000).
Hume and Aesthetics |
A special word on Hume's Aesthetics...Having done my duty to my students, permit me to add a word on one of my special interests, the Philosophy of Art.
Hume's major work in this area was, of course, his essay, "Of the Standard of Taste," (This is essay #23 of Hume's Essays Moral, Political, and Literary)...{You can find really good editions (with helps!) of Hume's essay online!!}, though there are references to the arts scattered throughout his writings. We cannot list everything that has been written on Hume's Aesthetics. I once did a paper on the subject, though it hardly rates with the really "good stuff"--- "Hume on Ethics, Aesthetics, and the Difference it Makes," Southwest Philosophy Review, Vol. 3, 1986, pp. 60-69 ( Of related interest, see my "The Ideal Aesthetic Observer: a Second Look, "The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, Vol. 29, Fall, 1970, pp. 47-52).
Now, back to the "good stuff," I shall simply be dogmatic and just say that nobody has written as much, or as well, on this topic, as Prof. Peter Jones, of the University of Edinburgh. I begin, therefore, with a partial listing of his writings on the subject:
But actually, there is a lot of material out there relating to Hume's aesthetics, so I add a few more essays:
Finally, the Libraryof Scottish Philosophy has a volume, Art and Enlightenment, Scottish Aesthetics in the 18th Century (Exeter, UK: Imprint Academic, 2004), edited by Jonathan Friday. The book has Hume's major writings on aesthetics, and others, from Hutcheson to Stewart, which provide the needed background for his work.

Adam Smith |

Hume's friend Adam Smith was the only friend he had who could claim to be a philosopher of Hume's stature. There are no recent major biographies on Adam Smith (there could be debate about this as of 1995; see below)- but I did find a Smith Biography with time-line dates on-line! Most still rely on Dugald Stewart's "Account of the Life and Writings of Adam Smith, L. L.D.," which is sometimes included in editions of Smith's Theory of Moral Sentiments (e.g. the Augustus M. Kelley reprint, 1966). Again, there is a volume, Adam Smith, in the Famous Scots series, written by Hector C. Macpherson in 1899. Ernest C. Mossner could not duplicate his work on Hume, and could produce only a lecture, "Adam Smith: the Biographical Approach" (U. of Glasgow, 1969). Similar, and also quite short, is Andrew Skinner's "Adam Smith F.R.S.E. (1723-1790)" in the Scottish Men of Letters series, 1981. Somewhat longer, but intellectually lightweight, is E. G. West, Adam Smith, in the Architects of Freedom Series (Arlington House, 1969).
Two important sources that have to be considered in Adam Smith studies are: Glenn R. Morrow, The Ethical and Economic Theories of Adam Smith (1923, reprinted by Augustus M. Kelley, 1973). D. D. Raphael, "The Impartial Spectator," (a Dawes Hicks lecture on philosophy for the British Academy, 1972).
Notice that there is no recent major book on Adam Smith (again, see below). Should you care to write one, Baylor has a major source you will need to consult. Pergamon Press has produced a microfilm set of Adam Smith References to the Wealth of Nations - 180,000 pages filmed on over 2000 fiche! But the best news for Baylor students is that, as of 2002, we now have the Glasgow Edition of the Works and Correspondence of Adam Smith as part of the Past Masters database!!! The best secondary source is The Cambridge Companion to Adam Smith (Cambridge University Press, 2006), edited by Knud Haakonssen.
A couple of new things have turned up on Adam Smith that also need to be cited.
Yes, there is more; three new books that should be read are:
Two other valuable recent works on Adam Smith are Adam Smith Reviewed, edited by Peter Jones and Andrew S. Skinner (Edinburgh University Press, 1992) and Adam Smith by D. D. Raphael, in the Past Masters series (Oxford University Press, New York, 1989).
At some point, I should have mentioned that there is now a competent full-length biography of Adam Smith, The Life of Adam Smith, by Ian Simpson Ross (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1995). Oxford U. Press is also publishing the Glasgow edition of the Works and Correspondence of Adam Smith. Curiously, the Liberty Fund has obtained the right to publish this excellent, scholarly edition, in a rather inexpensive, paperback version in the United States.Their editions of Adam Smith's Theory of Moral Sentiments, and The Wealth of Nations are also available online!! Amazingly enough, I think it's also true that all of Smith's published works-in the best editions-can be found on the Liberty Fund website!!
There is also an Adam Smith page on the Web, with a list of his published works, E-texts of the Wealth of Nations and the Theory of Moral Sentiments, biographical materials, and a few secondary sources (mostly from the standpoint of economic theory). There is even a site at Penn State which does pdf. files of major works; they have added an Adam Smith page, and have The Wealth of Nations---download it to your computer!!
Remember Baylor students have it all through Past Masters!!
James Beattie |

Hume had his critics, too, even in his own time. Certainly the most brutal (I think that's the word I want!) was James Beattie, especially in his Essay on the Nature and Immutability of Truth (1770, 1776, reprinted by Garland Publishing, 1971). You will also want to read An Account of the Life and Writings of James Beattie, LL.D. by Sir William Forbes (2 volumes, Edinburgh, 1806). Actually, many university libraries have a database on 18th century works that will have all of Beattie's published works online.
The Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy online has a good article on Beattie by Paul Wood; the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy has a very helpful essay by Douglas McDermid. And Google has put online an essay that James Fieser wrote on "The Rise and Fall of James Beattie's Common-Sense Theory of Truth" for the Monist's April, 2007 issue. Finally, there is a short essay on Beattie in the Gale Literary Databases.
The best news may be that the Library of Scottish Philosophy has published a very convenient collection: James Beattie, Selected Philosophical Writings, edited by James A. Harris (Exeter, UK: Imprint Academic, 2004).
Thomas Reid |
Indeed, Hume had many critics. It is clear, however, that the most influential, and probably the most philosophically able, was Thomas Reid, the founder of the Scottish philosophy of "common sense." There is no recent, competent, definitive book on Reid. For those who wish to understand Reid, let me be so bold as to suggest the following schedule. First, Dugald Stewart, who was a student of Reid, produced an "Account of the Life and Writings of Thomas Reid, D.D.," which is included (among other places) in Volume One of the two-volume set of Reid's works, produced by Sir William Hamilton (Edinburgh, 8th ed., 1895). Get the set, read the two volumes, etc.; Hamilton's own "Notes and Supplementary Dissertations" are profound. For a change of pace, read the Famous Scots series volume on Thomas Reid by a somewhat later philosopher, A. Campbell Fraser (Edinburgh, 1898). see also the good article on Reid, by Roger Gallie, in the Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy online. Also, the Gale Literary Databases has two good entries on Thomas Reid, one on his philosophy, by Peter Diamond, and another from their "American Colonial Writers" section.
Not enough of the work of Reid is available online, but a French site has Volume Two of the Hamilton edition (cited above), which includes Reid's work on the "active powers." Well, the French may be entangled in legal problems (or something) here, but Baylor students can get Reid on the active powers , through a library site on "Eighteenth Century Collections Online." The same database can provide Reid on the "intellectual" powers.
Curiously, Reid's first publication,"On Quantity," Philosophical Transactions, Vol. 45 (1748): 505-520, is on the web, through JSTOR.
But the really good news for Reid scholars is that the Pennsylvania State University Press (University Park, Pennsylvania) is publishing the Edinburgh Edition of Thomas Reid. Available thus far (early 2005) are:

When you're ready for more serious stuff, a number of useful books are available:
There was a journal called Reid Studies, but after five volumes (or as of Autumn, 2003), this has been incorporated into the Journal of Scottish Philosophy, published by the Centre for the Study of Scottish Philosophy at the University of Aberdeen.
Which reminds me, there are only a few really good books on Reid (despite the list above), but journals have run helpful special issues:
Prof. John Haldane has also transcribed and published a previously unpublished essay by Thomas Reid, "Of Power," The Philosophical Quarterly, Vol. 51, No. 202, January, 2001, pp. 1-12.

But the great news for 2004 is the publication of the Cambridge Companion to Thomas Reid, edited by Terence Cuneo and Rene van Woudenberg!! (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004). This is clearly the most useful volume available on Reid and his work.
There has actually been a lot of work done recently on Thomas Reid, though I am not always completely satisfied with the results:
A book that we must have is Thomas Reid and the Story of Epistemology by Nicholas Wolterstorff (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001) I do not find Wolterstorff easy reading. I never do.But this is probably the best book thus far written on Reid. Wolterstorff repeatedly tells the reader that he is not doing a work of exegesis, but means to provide an interpretation of Reid. This puzzles me a bit. I know that interpretations are not the sorts of things that are evaluated (usually) as true of false; indeed, it is sometimes argued that they cannot even be evaluated as "correct" or not, but only as more or less plausible. In any case, I cannot shake the feeling that what we have here is not so much an account (or whatever) of what Reid wrote and thought, but what Wolsterstorff thinks he really should have...
The Wadsworth Philosophers Series has a new volume, On Reid, by Peimin Ni (Belmont, California: Wadsworth, 2002). Ni has an earlier (1996) book on Reid, in Chinese. This book is a helpful introduction to Reid's thought.
Students at Baylor may also be interested in a new book by Colin Brown. Christianity and Western Thought, a History of Philosophers, Ideas and Movements ( Intervarsity Press, 1990.) Not great, perhaps, but the second part of the book includes a chapter on "Scottish Common Sense and Early American Philosophy," which is unique in that it makes use of my edition of Reid's natural theology {Thomas Reid's Lectures on Natural Theology (1780), University Press of America, 1981}.
In 2004, the city of Aberdeen dedicated a plaque in Reid's honor, in remembrance of his years of teaching at their King's College:

But Reid had his critics, too, even in his own time. See for example, Joseph Priestley's An Examination of Dr. Reid's Inquiry . . . Dr. Beattie's Essay . . . etc. (1774, Garland reprint, 1978).
Off the subject a bit, but it might also be fun to look into Hume's relationship with Rousseau...Their "relationship" has been the subject of two very readable recent books:

George Campbell |

As indicated earlier, another popular "anti-Hume" work was A Dissertation on Miracles by George Campbell (1762, Garland reprint, 1983). Campbell is almost as well known for his Philosophy of Rhetoric (1776, The Southern Illinois University Press reprint of 1963 has a very useful "Editor's Introduction" by Lloyd F. Bitzer).
There is also a new book, George Campbell: Rhetoric in the Age of Enlightenment, by Arthur E. Walzer ( Albany: State University of New York Press, 2002). Before ordering a copy, look at the review by Brian Fehler, Christian Scholar's Review, Vol. 32, No. 3, Spring, 2003, pp. 329-331. Looks like a good read!!
Why is George Campbell suddenly popular?? Yet another book on him is Orthodoxy and Enlightenment: George Campbell in the Eighteenth Century, by Jeffrey M. Suderman (Montreal: McGill-Queens University Press, 2001). Looks good!!
Scottish Philosophy in
the 19th Century |

The Scottish philosophy did not end with Reid. Those interested in its further development can begin their study with George Elder Davie's valuable book, The Democratic Intellect: Scotland and her Universities in the Nineteenth Century (Edinburgh, 1961, 1964). Davie sought to follow up this work with his less successful The Crisis of the Democratic Intellect: The Problem of Generalism and Specialization in Twentieth-Century Scotland (Edinburgh, 1986). Davie was a fascinating writer. You might also wish to consult his "Berkeley's Impact on Scottish Philosophers," Philosophy, Vol. XL, July, 1965, pp. 222-234....and his "The Social Significance of the Scottish Philosophy of Common Sense" (22 pp.), his Dow Lecture, delivered at the University of Dundee, November 30, 1972, published 1973.
Dugald Stewart was a major figure in early 19th century Scottish Philosophy. I happen to own a copy of his The Philosophy of the Active and Moral Powers of Man, "Revised, with Omissions and Additions, by James Walker, D. D." (E. H. Butler & Co., Philadelphia, 1866). This is mentioned to illustrate the fact that Stewart's works, often in abridged editions, were popular in America. Note the list in the first entry on the Scottish Enlightenment above. Gordon MacIntyre has written a new biography, Dugald Stewart: The Pride and Ornament of Scotland (Sussex Academic Press, 2003). MacIntyre's book is really quite good. But the author is not a philosopher. Readers may look for more detailed analyses of Stewart's work elsewhere. A place to begin might be to consult a recent doctoral dissertation by Jennifer Tannoch-Bland, The Primacy of Moral Philosophy: Dugald Stewart and the Scottish Enlightenment; this dissertation can be accessed online. See also the very helpful entry on Stewart in the Gale Literary Databases by Thomas F. Strychacz. And there is a useful entry on Stewart, by E. H. Madden, in the Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy online. Maybe I haven't looked in the right places, but I have not located a lot of periodical literature on Dugald Stewart; a prominent exception is : Jonathan Friday's "Dugald Stewart on Reid, Kant and the Refutation of Idealism," British Journal for the History of Philosophy, 13, 2, (2005): 263-286.

During one of Dugald Stewart's illnesses, his lectures were given by a handsome younger man named Thomas Brown (1778-1820), who had been trained in medicine (M. D.!), but seemed to prefer poetry and, of course, philosophy. He did the job so well that, when Stewart retired, he replaced him as professor of moral philosophy at the University of Edinburgh.

During his lifetime, Brown was best known for his Inquiry into the Relation of Cause and Effect (1818), which is available today as a facsimile reproduction, with an Introduction by Bernard E. Rollin (Scholars' Facsimiles & Reprints, Delmar, New York, 1977).Brown died young, and after his death, his lectures were published in four fat volumes as Lectures on the Philosophy of the Human Mind (W. and C. Tait, Princes' Street, Edinburgh, 1820).The fourth volume was also published as Lectures on Ethics, with a Preface by Thomas Chalmers, D. D., probably the best-known preacher of his time.
In America, Harvard's Levi Hedge abridged the lectures into just two volumes,as a Treatise on the Philosophy of the Human Mind (Cambridge, Published by Hilliard and Brown, 1827).This is now (2008) available in a new paperback edition by Kessinger Publishing. Kessinger has also reprinted the Account of the Life and Writings of Thomas Brown, M. D., by the Rev. David Welsh (W. & C. Tait, Princes' Street, Edinburgh, 1825). Church historians will recognize that David Welsh and Thomas Chalmers played central roles in the "Disruption" of 1843, which led to the founding of the Free Church of Scotland.
The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy also has an article on Scottish Philosophy in the 19th Century--very helpful!
Later in the century, the most important figure was Sir William Hamilton. I quote a passage from the Stanford article cited above: "Hamilton's writings are extensive but arguably his views can be adequately ascertained from three long essays which appeared in the Edinburgh Review -- ‘The Philosophy of the Unconditioned’ (1829), ‘The Philosophy of Perception’ (1830) and ‘Logic’ (1833), subsequently republished in a collection of his writings." Thanks to the miracle of PCI Full text, Baylor students can access all three articles, or simply download them as convenient pdf. files!! I also note that a recent book. by M. Gail Hamner, American Pragmatism, A Religious Genealogy (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003), has a section (Part II) on the "Evolution of Scottish Psychology," featuring chapters on Sir William Hamilton and Alexander Bain. And if you decide you really don't care much for Hamilton, the Liberty Fund is publishing the complete works of John Stuart Mill, volume 9 of which is An Examination of Sir William Hamilton's Philosophy {this is a large file, and takes time to download}.

Finally (for now, anyway), one version of where all of this was going is to be found in Alasdair MacIntyre's Three Versions of Moral Inquiry: Encyclopedia, Genealogy and Tradition. (University of Notre Dame Press, 1990). All of which reminds me, chapters XII-XVI of MacIntyre's Whose Justice? Which Rationality? (University of Notre Dame Press, 1988) are extremely valuable for the study of this whole period, and its backgrounds.
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Carmichael and Hutcheson--and
Others |

Now, back to where it all began, we all need to read Natural Rights on the Threshold of the Scottish Enlightenment: The Writings of Gershom Carmichael, edited by James Moore and Michael Silverthorne (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 2002). In case your memory fails, Carmichael was Professor of Moral Philosophy at the University of Glasgow before Hutcheson. You might also consult the very useful essay, "Natural Sociability and Natural Rights in the Moral Philosophy of Gershom Carmichael," by James Moore and Michael Silverthorne, pp. 1-12, in Philosophers of the Scottish Enlightenment, edited by V. Hope (noted above).
But I tend to rush ahead... many people think the first major philosopher of the Scottish Enlightenment was Francis Hutcheson of the University of Glasgow. My old friend Haywood Shuford used to say "Of the buying of books, there is no end." We really need to start again, and note that the Everyman Library has published a selection of Philosophical Writings by Francis Hutcheson, edited by R. S. Downie (J. M. Dent, London, 1994). I almost decided to require this for my course; it looks very useful.
Arguably, Hutcheson's two most important works are his An Inquiry into the Original of Our Ideas of Beauty and Virtue and his An Essay on the Nature and Conduct of the Passions and Affections, with Illustrations on the Moral Sense. Both are now available in very nice editions (at low prices, too!!), and can also be downloaded as pdf files from the Liberty Fund website.!!
I am amazed to find a site that has (though it's a bit tough to use) both Hutcheson's Short Introduction to Moral Philosophy and his System of Moral Philosophy--online!

Hutcheson is such an important figure that I don't know why I have not done more with his work. I'm sure he has been the suject of many books--I mention only three to start:
Until rather recently, Hutcheson's works were difficult to find, except for very expensive, rare-book copies. A few things were available; again I list only a few:
When we get to periodical literature or web sources on Hutcheson, there is less than we might have expected, but there is some useful material, too.
Some good books, and worthy authors, are forgotten. One such author was David Fordyce (1711-1751), whose book, The Elements of Moral Philosophy (1754), was very popular in America in the late 18th century. The book is available in a new (2003) edition by the Liberty fund, Indianapolis, and is available on the web! Fordyce was too often dismissed as a "Hutcheson disciple," but his work is worth a read, in its own right..

Hume had many friends, some of whom were philosophers, or at least, scholars who wrote books of philosophical interest. For example, his best friend may have been the Rev. Robert Wallace, author of (among other things) A Dissertation on the Numbers of Mankind (2nd ed., 1809, reprinted by Augustus M. Kelley, 1969). Wallace's book was the principal target of Malthus' work on population.
It will be recalled that Hume was replaced as Librarian of the "Advocates Library" by Adam Ferguson, who later became Professor of Moral Philosophy at the University of Edinburgh. Ferguson wrote, in 1767, An Essay on the History of Civil Society (reprinted by the Edinburgh University Press, 1966). It is possible to find a bibliography of his work on the Web; Ferguson deserves further study.

One person I don't find enough about is the almost legendary Professor of Law, John Millar.You should read John Millar of Glasgow, by William C. Lehmann (New York: Arno Press, 1979). Millar is perhaps best known for his Origin of the Distinction of Ranks. Of course, there is more relevant material to the found, more appearing everyday.
And I had really not expected to find two entries in the Gale Literary Databases on Henry Home, Lord Kames!! I really need to take the time to say more-lots more-about Henry Home, Lord Kames. Begin by noting that the Liberty Fund is doing a number of his works, and his Essays on the Principles of Morality and Natural Religion is available in an online, downloadable pdf. version, edited by Mary Catherine Moran, 2005. Further good news is that the series also includes a new (2005)edition of Kames' Elements of Criticism, edited by Peter Jones!

Hume and the ContinentWhere do we go from here? One area of interest is the reception of Scottish philosophy on the European continent. Consider two books, one recent, one a bit older:
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For another look at where the Scottish Philosophy was headed in the 19th century, see The Scottish Idealists, Selected Philosophical Writings, Edited and Introduced by David Boucher, a part of the Library of Scottish Philosophy (Exeter UK: Imprint Academic, 2004).
Scottish Philosophy in America |
In my course, I like to emphasize the tremendous influence that Reid and the other critics of Hume, with their "Scottish Common Sense" philosophy, had on America in the 18th and 19th centuries.There have been a number of good papers on the topic. Three that I would place in the "must read" category are:.
You might also look at another Bibliographical Essay of mine on American Moral Philosophy in the 19th Century. An excellent source for this is a site at the University of Michigan called the Making of America, a digital library of primary sources, mostly from the 19th Century; you must check out the MOA site! I close by noting one of my favorite topics. It is well known that the Scottish philosophy was prominent (to say the least) in mid-19th Century Princeton where James McCosh was president, and where Charles Hodge, Archibald Alexander (etc.) led the Seminary. They wrote books, but much of their best work can be found in their Biblical Repertory and Theological Review, better known as the Princeton Review. The MOA has this journal available on-line from 1830-1882, an invaluable source. Yet one more very valuable resource is the Edinburgh Review, available online for Baylor students, issues from 1802-1929, through PCI Full Text!!
I think (and hope) that there is also renewed interest in the influence of Scottish philosophy (Hume and "anti-Hume") on American thought of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. My marvelous book To Preach Christ: The Education of William Carey Crane (Baylor U. Press, 1987) may not be the greatest book ever on the subject , . . but if you care about the Scottish influence on America, the bibliography is excellent (if I do say so).
General works:
Some Major Figures:

John Witherspoon
Stohlman, Martha Lou Lemmon, John Witherspoon, Parson, Politician, Patriot {Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1976} .
Noll, Mark A., Princeton and the Republic, 1768-1822{ Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton Universuty Press, 1989}

Samuel Stanhope Smith

Charles Hodge
Charles Hodge was the editor-and a major contributor-of the Princeton Review for 40 years. Courtesy of the Princeton Seminary Libraries, it is possible to access about 200 items by him online.


As a teacher, I was often annoyed when my students asked "What do we have to read?," clearly suggesting they wanted to read as little as possible. I had (and have) no answer. But there are two books that seem to me basic. One is an anthology, The Princeton Theology, edited by Mark Noll (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 1983).But the "Princeton Theology" carried with it a Princeton philosophy. That philosophy was often identified with Charles Hodge, a very good theologian-philosopher, who also edited the journal, with the title usualy shortened to the Princeton Review. But if you read that journal, my contention is that you will find that many of the better articles were written, not by Hodge, but by Lyman H. Atwater. Again, the book to read, that I think supports my case, is Peter Hicks' The Philosophy of Charles Hodge (1997).
Lyman H. Atwater
He published only one book, his Manual of Elementary Logic; (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co., 1867. Revised 1879). But he was an excellent polemic writer--through the Princeton Seminary libraries alone, we can access some 86 items!

Francis Bowen
A helpful secondary source is Daniel W. Howe’s The Unitarian Conscience: Harvard Moral Philosophy, 1805-1861 (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1970. Reprinted with a new introduction by Wesleyan University Press, 1988).

Orestes Brownson
There is at least one group, The Orestes Brownson Society, that is willing to argue that he was ..."the greatest writer of the nineteenth Century"! And they have posted a number of his writings online to support their case.

Alexander Campbell
Few philosopher-theologians could say they created a denomination, but Alexander Campbell, and his father, Thomas Campbell did just that. They tried to be Baptists, or Presbyterians; they really wanted to be simply Christians, and Christians only. But today they are known as the Disciples of Christ, sometimes called Campbellites.

Nathaniel William Taylor
Oneof the better books recently done on Nathaniel Taylor is Douglas A. Sweeney's Nathaniel Taylor, New Haven Theology, and the Legacy of Jonathan Edwards (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000).
Taylor's best work is his Lectures on the Moral Government of God, 2 volumes (New York: Clark, Austin & Smith, 1859), reprinted by Garland publishing, London, 1987.

Noah Porter
Personal preference, but one of my favorites of Porter's papers was one he did to celebrate "The Kant Centennial" for The Princeton Review. Vol. 57, November, 1881, pp. 394-424.

James Henley Thornwell

James McCosh
Primary Sources:
And, courtesy of the Princeton Seminary Libraries, it is possible to access 15 articles by him.
But McCosh also did a lot of good work before coming to America, for example his paper on "Scottish Metaphysicians" North British Review, Nov., 1857, 402-434.

Levi and F. H. Hedge

Archibald Alexander
He was the first professor and President of the Princeton Theological Seminary. Courtesy of the Seminary libraries, we can access some 86 items by this writer.
As noted below, I consider him to have been primarily a preacher-theologian, though he did an important work on ethics, his Outlines of Moral Science (1850).
Problems!!
There are many problems here, but permit me to emphasize just one. If we want to discuss "Scottish Philosophy in America." we could begin by discussing the so-called "Founding Fathers." Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, James Wilson (see below), and many others, had strong Scottish connections. Or, one could discuss theologians and preachers, such as Archibald Alexander and Francis Wayland (and again, many others). Wayland also deserves special note because he broke from the tradition of using British-usually Scottish- textbooks, and wrote his own Elements of Moral Science (1835). I take Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau to have been primarily literary figures. My plan has been to emphasize what I choose to call "Academicians." Clearly, the groups overlap, and even within groups, I would expect disagreement. I can defend my choices, but do not expect to prove that all these choices are "correct;" it will be enough for me if my readers (if any) find them interesting and instructive.

(from The Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States)
James Wilson
The Collected Works of James Wilson are available, in 2 volumes, published by the Liberty Fund, Indianapolis, 2007.
See also The Political Ideas of James Wilson, by Jean-Marc Pascal (New York: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1991).
And it's amazing how much good philosophy appeared in 19th century periodicals!
Concluding Nonphilosophical
Comments |
Of course, there is much more. For example, the Garland publishers have a series of reprints of eighteen books on "The Philosophy of David Hume," of which I have listed only a few. And I have barely mentioned Hugh Blair, William Robertson, James Oswald, or Lord Monboddo! Many other books on Hume, his friends, and his critics, may be read with profit - but these will give you a good start.
I continue to leave out much that is important. For example, Hume was heavily influenced by Father Nicolas Malebranche (there is also an article on Malebranche in the Catholic Encyclopedia, and as always, an excellent article in the Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy online); serious students will buy his book, The Search After Truth, translated and with a philosophical commentary by Thomas M. Lennon and P. J. Olscamp (Ohio State University Press, Columbus, 1980)-and there may be a later edition. And there is even a Cambridge Companion to Malebranche (Cambridge University Press, 2000), edited by Steven Nadler.

So what else? Nothing perhaps remains but to go to Scotland, perhaps on one of those wonderful tours conducted by President Sam Logan (and his wife Susan) of the Westminster Theological Seminary.
"Where is Duncan's body?
Carried to Colmekill,
The sacred storehouse of his predecessors
And guardian of their bones."
EHD
