Scottish Philosophy in the Seventeenth Century

Broadie, A. (Ed.) (2020) Scottish Philosophy in the Seventeenth Century. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780198769842

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Abstract

During the seventeenth century Scots produced many philosophical writings of high quality, writings that were very much part of a wider European philosophical discourse. Yet today seventeenth-century Scottish philosophy is known to hardly anyone. The Scottish philosophy of the sixteenth century is now being investigated by many scholars, and the philosophy of the eighteenth is widely studied. But that of the seventeenth century is only now beginning to receive the attention it deserves. This book begins by placing the seventeenth-century Scottish philosophy in its political and religious contexts, and then investigates the writings of the philosophers in the areas of logic, metaphysics, politics, ethics, law, and religion. It is demonstrated that in a variety of ways the Scottish Reformation impacted on the teaching of philosophy in the Scottish universities. It is also demonstrated that until the second half of the century, and the arrival of Descartes on the Scottish philosophy curriculum, the Scots were teaching and developing a form of Reformed orthodox scholastic philosophy, a philosophy that shared many features with the scholastic Catholic philosophy of the medieval period. It also becomes clear that by the early eighteenth-century Scotland was well placed to give rise to the spectacular Enlightenment that then followed, and to do so in large measure on the basis of its own well-established intellectual resources. Among the many thinkers discussed are Reformed orthodox, Episcopalian, and Catholic philosophers including George Robertson, George Middleton, John Boyd, Robert Baron, Mark Duncan, Samuel Rutherford, James Dundas (first Lord Arniston), George Mackenzie, James Dalrymple (Viscount Stair), and William Chalmers.

Item Type:Edited Books
Status:Published
Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID:Broadie, Professor Alexander
Authors:
College/School:College of Arts & Humanities > School of Humanities
Publisher:Oxford University Press
ISBN:9780198769842
Published Online:01 March 2020

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