Comprehensive Study Notes: The Scottish Enlightenment - Social Theory and Politics
Overview of the Anthology: The Scottish Enlightenment
Editor: Alexander Broadie.
Context: This anthology serves as a definitive collection of primary texts from the Scottish Enlightenment, covering human nature, ethics, aesthetics, religion, and social theory.
Publication Information: First published as a Canongate Classic in 1997 by Canongate Books Ltd, Edinburgh.
Key Figures Included: David Hume, Dugald Stewart, Thomas Reid, Francis Hutcheson, Adam Smith, Hugh Blair, George Campbell, Henry Home (Lord Kames), John Millar, and Adam Ferguson.
John Millar: Methodology of Historical Information
Limitations of Early Records: Millar notes that historians have frequently overlooked the "transactions of early ages" as being unworthy of memory. Even in more "cultivated periods," historians prioritize accounts of battles and public negotiations over the "interior police and government of a country."
The Role of Travelers: Because official histories are lacking, information regarding the "rude parts of the world" is primarily derived from the accounts of travelers.
Caveat of Credibility: Travelers are often suspected of being "easily deceived" or of "endeavouring to misrepresent the facts."
Method of Comparative Authority: To establish truth, Millar proposes a method based on the number and variety of relations.
The Power of Agreement: When "illiterate men," who are ignorant of each other's writings and have no "speculative systems to warp their opinions," describe the manners of people in similar circumstances across distant ages and countries, their agreement provides authority.
Verification Through Singularity: Millar argues that the more singular an event is, the less probable it is that different persons—acting without concert—would agree in relating it falsely.
Rationalization of Customs: Evidence becomes complete when travelers report uniform customs and we are able to add the underlying reasons for those customs.
Defense Against Skepticism: Millar asserts that refusing to assent to such evidence would lead to a degree of skepticism that would destroy the credibility of all historical testimony.
Adam Ferguson: Introduction to the Origins of Civil Society
The Ambiguity of Progress: While improvement and progress were central themes of the Scottish Enlightenment, thinkers like Adam Ferguson and Adam Smith recognized a "price tag."
Adam Smith's Example: The extreme application of the division of labor poses a threat to the spiritual well-being of citizens.
New Cures for New Ailments: Broadie notes that what is called progress often involves inventing new remedies for the very problems created by social advancement.
Ferguson’s Skepticism of Happiness: Ferguson doubts whether progress results in an "increasing disproportion of happiness over unhappiness."
Adaptability: He argues that individuals accommodate themselves to their own societies. Because we cannot imagine being happy in an earlier society, it does not prove that people in those societies were less happy than we are.
Critique of Conjectural History: Ferguson rejects the "unscientific conjectures" of previous philosophers regarding the origins of society.
Thomas Hobbes: The state of nature as a state of "war of every man against every man."
Jean-Jacques Rousseau: The "noble savage" corrupted by society.
David Hume: Though Hume used the "experimental method," Ferguson views his account of society's formation—based on the "natural appetite between the sexes"—as a "conjectural piece."
The Fundamental Social Fact: Ferguson argues there is no evidence for a pre-social state of nature. Human beings are, and have always been, social animals. Therefore, living socially is the "state of nature."
Adam Ferguson: The Question Relating to the State of Nature
Progress in Individuals vs. Species:
Animal Growth: In other species, the individual (such as a mouse or wolf) attains all the perfection its nature allows within a single life.
Human Growth: In humans, both the individual and the species exhibit progress. The species advances from "rudeness to civilization."
The Illusion of the "First State": Ferguson criticizes poets and moralists who use emblems of "gold" or "iron" to represent an ancient time from which mankind has either degenerated or improved.
The Error of Invention: Writers often assume the original state of nature bore no resemblance to current life, leading them to view modern establishments as "incroachments" made by fraud, oppression, or invention.
Critique of Intellectual Systems:
The "Sensibility" Theory: Some represent the original condition as mere animal sensibility without speech or political union.
The "State of War" Theory: Others assume a state of perpetual war and competition.
The Scientific Approach: Ferguson argues that a natural historian should collect facts rather than offer conjectures. He insists that man's current dispositions and instincts should be assumed as his original ones unless evidence suggests otherwise.
Man as a Social Animal: Ferguson asserts that all accounts from every quarter of the earth represent mankind as assembled in "troops and companies."
Attributes of Nature: Social affection, friendship, enmity, reason, use of language, and the erect position of the body are as much part of human nature as the wing is to the eagle or the paw to the lion.
Experimentation and the "Colony of Children":
Ferguson argues against looking at "wild men" caught in woods as specimens of human nature; they are "forced or uncommon conditions," much like an eye that has never seen light.
Hypothetical Socialization: He suggests that a colony of children left to form a society apart, untaught, would still repeat human history: they would herd, play, develop language, quarrel, and form friendships.
Adam Ferguson: Art, Nature, and the Principle of Progression
The Cumulative Nature of Man: Mankind builds in every age on foundations laid by predecessors. This requires "long experience" and the combined endeavors of many generations.
Uniqueness of the Human Species: Ferguson rejects theories that suggest humans evolved from other animals (like those whose shape resembles ours).
The Distinct Class: No possession of similar organs or the use of the hand has allowed any other species to blend their nature with humans. Even in a "rude state," man is superior to all other animals.
Art as Natural to Man: Ferguson eliminates the distinction between "art" and "nature."
The Internal Artificer: Man is the "artificer of his own frame, as well as his fortune." Inventing and contriving are natural destinations for the human species.
The Progress of Inhabitation: If a man dwells in a cave, he seeks to improve it into a cottage, and then into a larger building. This process is slow and progressive, like the "power of a spring" pressing silently.
Relativity of Comfort and Situation:
Individuals find lodgment and subsistence in caves, cottages, or palaces with equal ease.
Comparison of Lodgings: A tree climbed by an American on the banks of the "Oroonoko" is as much a "convenient dwelling" to him as a "vaulted dome" or "colonade" is to a city inhabitant.
The Final Definition of the State of Nature:
"If we are asked therefore, Where the state of nature is to be found? we may answer, It is here."
Whether in Great Britain, the Cape of Good Hope, or the Straits of Magellan, any situation where man employs his talents is equally natural.
The Continuity of Invention: The highest refinements of political and moral apprehension are no more artificial than the first operations of sentiment and reason.
Standard of Perfection:
The "proper state of nature" is not a condition left in the past, but a perfection to be attained through the "just application" of human faculties.
One must look for the standard in the "best conceptions of his understanding" and the "best movements of his heart."
David Hume: Of the First Principles of Government (Introduction)
The Surprising Fact of Governance: Hume observes that it is surprising that the "many" allow themselves to be governed by the "few."
Opinion vs. Force: Since physical force is always on the side of the governed (the many), government must be founded on "opinion" alone.
Critique of Tory Theory (Divine Right): The Tory view that allegiance is owed due to a "divine right" is rejected by Hume because it requires unverifiable evidence and prompts unanswerable questions about God's nature and specific signs of authority.
Critique of Whig Theory (Social Contract): The Whig view of an "original contract" is also rejected.
Verifiability: There is no verifiable record of such a contract.
Obligation: Even if it existed, it could not explain why subsequent generations, who were not party to the contract, should be bound by it.
Hume’s Two Opinions: Broadie explains that Hume focuses on two types of opinion that support government: the "opinion of interest" (the sense of the advantage of government) and the "opinion of right" (the sense of the governor's right to authority).