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The Scottish Enlightenment was the period in 18th century Scotland
Scotland

conventional_long_name = ScotlandAlba|common_name= Scotland|image_flag = Flag of Scotland.svg|flag_width = 130px...
 characterised by an outpouring of intellectual and scientific accomplishments. By 1750, Scots
Scottish people

The Scots people are a nation and an ethnic group indigenous to Scotland.Historically, as an ethnic group, they emerged from an amalgamation of Celts, Picts, Gaels and Brythons....
 were amongst the most literate nations of Europe
Europe

Europe is, conventionally, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural , the Caspian Sea, and by the Caucasus Mountains to the southeast....
, with an estimated 75% level of literacy
Literacy

The traditional definition of literacy is considered to be the ability to read and write, or the ability to use language to Reading , Writing, Listening, and Speech communication....
.

Sharing the humanist and rationalist outlook of the European Enlightenment
Age of Enlightenment

The Age of Enlightenment or The Enlightenment is a term used to describe a time in Western philosophy and cultural life centered upon the eighteenth century, in which rationalism was advocated as the primary source and legitimacy for authority....
 of the same time period, the thinkers of the Scottish Enlightenment asserted the fundamental importance of human reason
Reason

Reason may refer to Mind#Mental faculties that consciously create explanations in order to judge, decide, solve problems, generalize, and give examples, among other activities....
 combined with a rejection of any authority
Authority

In government, authority is often used interchangeably with the term "power ". However, their meanings differ: while "power" refers to the ability to achieve certain ends, "authority" refers to a claim of legitimacy , the justification and right to exercise that power....
 which could not be justified by reason.






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The Scottish Enlightenment was the period in 18th century Scotland
Scotland

conventional_long_name = ScotlandAlba|common_name= Scotland|image_flag = Flag of Scotland.svg|flag_width = 130px...
 characterised by an outpouring of intellectual and scientific accomplishments. By 1750, Scots
Scottish people

The Scots people are a nation and an ethnic group indigenous to Scotland.Historically, as an ethnic group, they emerged from an amalgamation of Celts, Picts, Gaels and Brythons....
 were amongst the most literate nations of Europe
Europe

Europe is, conventionally, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural , the Caspian Sea, and by the Caucasus Mountains to the southeast....
, with an estimated 75% level of literacy
Literacy

The traditional definition of literacy is considered to be the ability to read and write, or the ability to use language to Reading , Writing, Listening, and Speech communication....
.

Sharing the humanist and rationalist outlook of the European Enlightenment
Age of Enlightenment

The Age of Enlightenment or The Enlightenment is a term used to describe a time in Western philosophy and cultural life centered upon the eighteenth century, in which rationalism was advocated as the primary source and legitimacy for authority....
 of the same time period, the thinkers of the Scottish Enlightenment asserted the fundamental importance of human reason
Reason

Reason may refer to Mind#Mental faculties that consciously create explanations in order to judge, decide, solve problems, generalize, and give examples, among other activities....
 combined with a rejection of any authority
Authority

In government, authority is often used interchangeably with the term "power ". However, their meanings differ: while "power" refers to the ability to achieve certain ends, "authority" refers to a claim of legitimacy , the justification and right to exercise that power....
 which could not be justified by reason. They held to an optimistic
Optimism

Optimism is an outlook on life such that one maintains a view of the world as a positive place, or one's personal situation as a positive one. It is the philosophical opposite of pessimism....
 belief in the ability of man to effect changes for the better in society
Society

A society is a group of humans characterized by patterns of relationships between individuals that share a distinctive culture and/or institutions....
 and nature
Nature

File:Jungle in Punjab.JPGNature, in the broadest sense, is equivalent to the natural world, physical universe, material world or material universe....
, guided only by reason.

It was this latter feature which gave the Scottish Enlightenment its special flavour, distinguishing it from its continental European counterpart. In Scotland, the Enlightenment was characterised by a thoroughgoing empiricism
Empiricism

In philosophy, empiricism is a theory of knowledge which asserts that knowledge arises from experience. Empiricism is one of several competing views about how we know "things," part of the branch of philosophy called epistemology, or "theory of knowledge"....
 and practicality where the chief virtue
Virtue

Virtue is morality excellence. Personal virtues are characteristics Value as promoting individual and collective well-being, and thus Goodness and value theory by definition....
s were held to be improvement, virtue, and practical benefit for both the individual
Individual

As vernacular, individual refers to a person or to any specific object in a collection. In the 15th century and earlier, and also today within the fields of statistics and metaphysics, individual means "indivisible", typically describing any numerically singular thing, but sometimes meaning "a person." ....
 and society as a whole.

Among the advances of the period were achievements in philosophy
Philosophy

Philosophy is the study of general problems concerning matters such as existence, knowledge, truth, beauty, justice, validity, mind, and language....
, economics
Economics

File:Ballard Farmers' Market - vegetables.jpgEconomics is the Social sciences that studies the Production theory basics, Distribution , and Consumption of Good and Service ....
, engineering
Engineering

Engineering is the discipline and profession of applying Technology and science knowledge and utilizing natural laws and physical resources in order to design and implement materials, structures, machines, devices, systems, and process that safely realize a desired objective and meet specified criteria....
, architecture
Architecture

The term architecture can refer to a process, a profession or documentation.As a process, architecture is the activity of designing and construction buildings and other physical structures by a person or a computer, primarily to provide shelter....
, medicine
Medicine

Medicine is the art and science of healing. It encompasses a range of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....
, geology
Geology

Geology is the science and study of the solid and liquid matter that constitute the Earth. The field of geology encompasses the study of the composition, structural geology, physical properties, dynamics, and History of the Earth of Earth materials, and the processes by which they are formed, moved, and changed....
, archaeology
Archaeology

Archaeology, archeology, or arch?ology is the science that studies Homo cultures through the recovery, documentation, analysis, and interpretation of material remains and environmental data, including architecture, Artifact , features, Biofact s, and cultural landscape....
, law
LAW

LAW may refer to:* Anti-tank warfare, e.g. the US Army M72 LAW or the British Army LAW 80*Palestinian Society for the Protection of Human Rights ...
, agriculture
Agriculture

Agriculture refers to the production of food and goods through farming and forestry. Agriculture was the key development that led to the rise of civilization, with the animal husbandry of domestication animals and plants creating food surpluses that enabled the development of more Population density and Social stratification societies....
, chemistry
Chemistry

Chemistry is the science concerned with the composition, structure, and properties of matter, as well as the changes it undergoes during chemical reactions....
, and sociology
Sociology

Sociology is a branch of the social sciences that uses systematic methods of Empiricism and critical theory to develop and refine a body of knowledge about human social structure and activity, sometimes with the goal of applying such knowledge to the pursuit of social welfare....
. Among the outstanding Scottish thinkers and scientists of the period were Francis Hutcheson
Francis Hutcheson (philosopher)

Francis Hutcheson was a philosopher born in Kingdom of Ireland to a family of Scotland Presbyterians who became one of the founding fathers of the Scottish Enlightenment....
, David Hume
David Hume

David Hume was a Scotland philosopher, economist, historian and a key figure in the history of Western philosophy and the Scottish Enlightenment....
, Adam Smith
Adam Smith

Adam Smith was a Scotland Ethics and a pioneer of political economy. One of the key figures of the Scottish Enlightenment, Smith is the author of The Theory of Moral Sentiments and The Wealth of Nations....
, Thomas Reid
Thomas Reid

Thomas Reid , Scotland philosopher, and a contemporary of David Hume, was the founder of the Scottish School of Common Sense, and played an integral role in the Scottish Enlightenment....
, Robert Burns
Robert Burns

Robert Burns was a poet and a lyricist. He is widely regarded as the national poet of Scotland, and is celebrated worldwide. He is the best known of the poets who have written in the Scots language, although much of his writing is also in English and a 'light' Scots dialect, accessible to an audience beyond Scotland....
, Adam Ferguson
Adam Ferguson

Adam Ferguson, also known as Ferguson of Raith was a philosopher and historian of the Scottish Enlightenment. He is sometimes called "the Fathers of scientific fields of modern sociology."...
, John Playfair
John Playfair

John Playfair Royal Society of Edinburgh, Fellow of the Royal Society was a Scotland scientist and mathematics, and a professor of natural philosophy at the University of Edinburgh....
, Joseph Black
Joseph Black

Joseph Black was a Scottish physician, physicist, and chemist, known for his discoveries of latent heat, specific heat, and carbon dioxide. He was a founder of thermochemistry who developed many pre-thermodynamics concepts, such as heat capacity, and was the mentor for James Watt....
 and James Hutton
James Hutton

James Hutton Doctor of Medicine was a Scotland geologist, physician, Natural history, chemist and experimental Agriculture. He is considered the father of modern geology....
.

The Scottish Enlightenment had effects far beyond Scotland itself, not only because of the esteem in which Scottish achievements were held in Europe and elsewhere, but also because its ideas and attitudes were carried across the Atlantic as part of the Scottish diaspora
Diaspora

The term diaspora refers to the movement of any population sharing common ethnicity identity who were either forced to leave or voluntarily left their Settler territory, and became residents in areas often far removed from the former....
 which had its beginnings in that same era.

After the Act of Union 1707


In the period following the Act of Union 1707 Scotland's place in the world was altered radically. Following the Reformation
Scottish Reformation

The Scottish Reformation was Scotland's formal break with the Roman Catholic Church in 1560, and the events surrounding this. It was part of the wider European Protestant Reformation; and in Scotland's case culminated ecclesiastically in the re-establishment of the church along Reformed theology lines, and politically in the triumph of Engla...
, many Scottish academics were teaching in great cities of mainland Europe but with the birth and rapid expansion of the new British Empire
British Empire

The British Empire comprised the dominions, Crown colony, protectorates, League of Nations mandate, and other Dependent territory ruled or administered by the United Kingdom , that had originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries....
 came a revival of philosophical thought in Scotland and a prodigious diversity of thinkers.

Arguably the poorest country in Western Europe
Western Europe

Western Europe refers to the countries in the western most half of Europe. This concept has had different meanings, political and cultural as well as geographical issues have influenced the area....
 in 1707, Scotland was then able to turn its attentions to the wider world without the opposition of England
England

native_name =|conventional_long_name = England|common_name = England|image_flag = Flag of England.svg|image_coat = England COA.svg|symbol_type = Royal Coat of Arms...
. Scotland reaped the economic benefits of free trade
Free trade

Free trade is a type of trade policy that allows traders to act and transact without coercive interference from government. Thus, the policy permits trading partners mutual gains from trade, with goods and services produced according to the law of comparative advantage....
 within the British Empire together with the intellectual benefits of having established Europe's first public education system
Education in Scotland

Scotland has a long history of universal provision of public education, and the Scottish education system is distinctly different from other parts of the United Kingdom....
 since classical
Classical antiquity

Classical antiquity is a broad term for a long period of cultural history centered on the Mediterranean Sea, comprising the interlocking civilizations of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome....
 times. Under these twin stimuli, Scottish thinkers began questioning assumptions previously taken for granted; and with Scotland's traditional connections to France
France

France , officially the French Republic , is a country whose Metropolitan France is located in Western Europe and that also comprises various Overseas departments and territories of France....
, then in the throes of the Enlightenment, the Scots began developing a uniquely practical branch of humanism
Humanism

Humanism is a broad category of ethics that affirm the dignity and worth of all people, based on the ability to determine right and wrong by appealing to universal human qualities, particularly rationalism, without resorting to the supernatural or alleged divine authority from religious texts....
 to the extent that Voltaire
Voltaire

Fran?ois-Marie Arouet , better known by the pen name Voltaire, was a French Age of Enlightenment writer, essayist, and philosophy known for his wit, philosophical sport, and defense of civil liberty, including freedom of religion and free trade....
 said "We look to Scotland for all our ideas of civilisation".

Empiricism and inductive reasoning


The first major philosopher of the Scottish Enlightenment was Francis Hutcheson
Francis Hutcheson (philosopher)

Francis Hutcheson was a philosopher born in Kingdom of Ireland to a family of Scotland Presbyterians who became one of the founding fathers of the Scottish Enlightenment....
, The intellectual break with the past was drastic and seemingly irreversible. In recent years, scholars have traced the rudiments of modern psychology, anthropology, the earth sciences, and theories of civil society and liberal education to eighteenth-century Scotland. }} who held the Chair of Philosophy at the University of Glasgow
University of Glasgow

The University of Glasgow was founded in 1451, in Glasgow, Scotland, and, along with its contemporary institution, the University of St Andrews, it formed the Kingdom of Scotland's equivalent to Oxbridge....
 from 1729 to 1746. A moral philosopher with alternatives to the ideas of Thomas Hobbes
Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes was an English philosophy, remembered today for his work on political philosophy. His 1651 book Leviathan established the foundation for most of Western political philosophy from the perspective of social contract theory....
, one of his major contributions to world thought was the utilitarian
Utilitarianism

Utilitarianism is the idea that the morality of an action is determined solely by its contribution to overall utility: that is, its contribution to happiness or pleasure as summed among all persons....
 and consequentialist
Consequentialism

Consequentialism refers to those moral theories which hold that the consequences of a particular action form the basis for any valid moral judgment about that action....
 principle that virtue is that which provides, in his words, "the greatest happiness for the greatest numbers".

Much of what is incorporated in the scientific method
Scientific method

Scientific method refers to techniques for investigating phenomenon, acquiring new knowledge, or correcting and integrating previous knowledge. To be termed scientific, a method of inquiry must be based on gathering observable, empirical and Measure evidence subject to specific principles of reasoning....
 (the nature of knowledge, evidence, experience, and causation) and some modern attitudes towards the relationship between science
Science

In its broadest sense, science refers to any systematic knowledge or practice. In its more usual restricted sense, science refers to a system of acquiring knowledge based on scientific method, as well as to the organized body of knowledge gained through such research....
 and religion
Religion

A religion is an organized approach to human spirituality which usually encompasses a set of myth, symbols, beliefs and practices, often with a supernatural or transcendence quality, that give meaning to the practitioner's experiences of life through reference to a higher power or truth....
 were developed by David Hume
David Hume

David Hume was a Scotland philosopher, economist, historian and a key figure in the history of Western philosophy and the Scottish Enlightenment....
. "Like many of the learned Scots, he revered the new science of Copernicus
Nicolaus Copernicus

Nicolaus Copernicus was the first astronomer to formulate a scientifically-based heliocentrism cosmology that displaced the Earth from the center of the universe....
, Bacon
Francis Bacon

Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Alban King's Counsel , son of Nicholas Bacon by his second wife Anne Bacon, was an English philosopher, statesman, scientist, lawyer, jurist, and author....
, Galileo
Galileo Galilei

Galileo Galilei was a Grand Duchy of Tuscany physicist, mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher who played a major role in the Scientific Revolution....
, Kepler
Johannes Kepler

Johannes Kepler was a Germans mathematician, astronomer and astrologer, and key figure in the 17th century Scientific revolution. He is best known for his eponymous Kepler's laws of planetary motion, codified by later astronomers based on his works Astronomia nova, Harmonices Mundi, and Epitome of Copernican Astrononomy....
, Boyle
Robert Boyle

Robert Boyle was an Irish People theologian, natural philosopher, chemist, physicist, inventor, and early gentleman scientist, noted for his work in physics and chemistry....
, and Newton
Isaac Newton

Sir Isaac Newton, Fellow of the Royal Society was an English people physicist, mathematician, Astronomy, Natural philosophy, Alchemy, and Theology and one of the the 100 in human history....
; he believed in the experimental method and loathed superstition
Superstition

Superstition is a belief or notion, not based on reason or knowledge. The word is often used pejoratively to refer to supposedly irrational beliefs of others, and its precise meaning is therefore subjective....
". Hume stands out from the mainstream enlightenment due to his deep pessimism
Pessimism

Pessimism, from the Latin pessimus , isa painful state of mind which negatively colours the perception of life, specially with regard to future events....
 which is largely not shared by other humanist thinkers.

Adam Smith
Adam Smith

Adam Smith was a Scotland Ethics and a pioneer of political economy. One of the key figures of the Scottish Enlightenment, Smith is the author of The Theory of Moral Sentiments and The Wealth of Nations....
 developed and published The Wealth of Nations
The Wealth of Nations

An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations is the magnum opus of the Scotland economist Adam Smith. It is a clearly written account of economics at the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, as well as a rhetorical piece written for the generally educated individual of the 18th century - advocating a free market econom...
, the first work in modern economics. This famous study, which had an immediate impact on British economic policy
Economic policy

Economic policy refers to the actions that governments take in the economics. It covers the systems for setting interest rates and government deficit as well as the labour market, nationalization, and many other areas of government....
, still frames 21st century discussions on globalisation and tariff
Tariff

A tariff is a tax imposed on goods when they are moved across a political boundary. They are usually associated with protectionism, the economic policy of restraining trade between nations....
s.

Scottish Enlightenment thinkers developed what Hume called a 'science of man
Science of man

The science of man is a topic used in David Hume's 18th century experimental philosophy A Treatise of Human Nature . The science of man expanded the understanding of facets of the human nature, including senses, impressions, ideas, imagination, passions, morality, justice, and society....
' which was expressed historically in works by such as James Burnett, Adam Ferguson
Adam Ferguson

Adam Ferguson, also known as Ferguson of Raith was a philosopher and historian of the Scottish Enlightenment. He is sometimes called "the Fathers of scientific fields of modern sociology."...
, John Millar, and William Robertson
William Robertson (historian)

William Robertson was a Scotland historian and Principal of the University of Edinburgh. He was born at Borthwick, Midlothian and educated in Dalkeith and at the University of Edinburgh, where he studied divinity....
, all of whom merged a scientific study of how humans behave in ancient and primitive cultures with a strong awareness of the determining forces of modernity
Modernity

Modernity is a term that refers to the modern era. It is distinct from modernism, and, in different contexts, refers to cultural and intellectual movements of the period c....
. Gathering places in Edinburgh such as The Select Society
The Select Society

The Select Society, established as The St. Giles' Cathedral Society but soon renamed, was an intellectual society in 18th century Edinburgh, Scotland....
 and, later, The Poker Club
The Poker Club

The Poker Club was one of several clubs at the heart of the Scottish Enlightenment where many associated with that movement met and exchanged views in a convivial atmosphere....
, were among the crucible
Crucible

A crucible is a heat-resistant container in which materials can be heated to very high temperatures.The use of crucibles to manufacture Crucible steel, introduced in England in the eighteenth century, was an important part of the Industrial Revolution....
s from which many of the ideas which distinguish the Scottish Enlightenment emerged.

The focus of the Scottish Enlightenment ranged from intellectual and economic matters to the specifically scientific as in the work of William Cullen
William Cullen

William Cullen was a Scottish Physician and chemist....
, physician
Physician

A physician, medical practitioner, doctor of medicine, or medical doctor practices medicine, and is concerned with maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease and injury....
 and chemist
Chemist

A chemist is a scientist trained in the science of chemistry. Chemists study the composition of matter and its properties such as density, acidity, size and shape....
, James Anderson
James Anderson of Hermiston

James Anderson , a figure in the Scottish Enlightenment, an agriculturist, inventor of the Scotch Plough, and economist, was born at Hermiston , Midlothian, Scotland ....
, a lawyer
Lawyer

A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an Attorney at law, counsel or solicitor; a person licensed to practice fraud." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain stability, and deliver justice....
 and agronomist
Agronomist

Agronomists are scientists who specialize in agronomy, which is the science of utilizing plants for food, fuel, feed, and fiber....
, Joseph Black
Joseph Black

Joseph Black was a Scottish physician, physicist, and chemist, known for his discoveries of latent heat, specific heat, and carbon dioxide. He was a founder of thermochemistry who developed many pre-thermodynamics concepts, such as heat capacity, and was the mentor for James Watt....
, physicist
Physicist

A physicist is a scientist who studies or practices physics. Physicists study a wide range of physical phenomena in many Physics#Major fields of physics spanning all length scales: from atom particles of which all ordinary matter is made to the behavior of the material Universe as a whole ....
 and chemist, and James Hutton
James Hutton

James Hutton Doctor of Medicine was a Scotland geologist, physician, Natural history, chemist and experimental Agriculture. He is considered the father of modern geology....
, the first modern geologist
Geologist

For other uses, see Geologist .A geologist is a contributor to the science of geology, studying the physical structure and processes of the Earth and planets of the solar system ....
.

While the Scottish Enlightenment is traditionally considered to have concluded toward the end of the 18th century, it is worth noting that disproportionately large Scottish contributions to British science and letters continued for another fifty years or more, thanks to such figures as James Hutton
James Hutton

James Hutton Doctor of Medicine was a Scotland geologist, physician, Natural history, chemist and experimental Agriculture. He is considered the father of modern geology....
, James Watt
James Watt

James Watt was a Scottish inventor and mechanical engineer whose improvements to the steam engine were fundamental to the changes brought by the Industrial Revolution in both the Kingdom of Great Britain and the world....
, William Murdoch
William Murdoch

William Murdoch was a Scotland engineer and inventor. It is believed that his name was Anglicisation to Murdock when he moved to England.He was employed by the firm of Boulton and Watt and worked for them in Cornwall as a steam engine erector for ten years, spending most of the rest of his life in Birmingham....
, James Clerk Maxwell
James Clerk Maxwell

James Clerk Maxwell was a Scotland Mathematical physics. His most significant achievement was the development of the classical electromagnetic theory, synthesizing all previous unrelated observations, experiments and equations of electricity, magnetism and even optics into a consistent theory....
, Lord Kelvin
William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin

William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin , Order of Merit , Royal Victorian Order, Privy Council of the United Kingdom, Presidents of the Royal Society, Royal Society of Edinburgh, was an Ireland-born United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland Mathematical physics and engineer....
 and Sir Walter Scott
Walter Scott

Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet, was a prolific Scotland historical novelist and poet popular throughout Europe during his time.In some ways Scott was the first English-language author to have a truly international career in his lifetime, with many contemporary readers all over Europe, Australia, and North America....
.

Key figures in the Scottish Enlightenment


  • Robert Adam
    Robert Adam

    Robert Adam was a Scotland neoclassicism architect, interior designer and furniture designer. He was the son of William Adam , Scotland's foremost architect of the time, and trained under him....
     (1728-1792) architect
    Architect

    An architect is trained and licenced in planning and designing buildings, and participates in supervising the construction of a building. Etymologically, architect derives from the Latin architectus, itself derived from the Greek arkhitekton , i.e....
  • James Anderson
    James Anderson of Hermiston

    James Anderson , a figure in the Scottish Enlightenment, an agriculturist, inventor of the Scotch Plough, and economist, was born at Hermiston , Midlothian, Scotland ....
     (1739-1808) agronomist
    Agronomy

    Agronomy is the science and technology of using plants for food, fuel, feed, and fiber. Agronomy encompasses work in the areas of plant genetics, plant physiology, meteorology, and soil science....
    , lawyer
    Lawyer

    A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an Attorney at law, counsel or solicitor; a person licensed to practice fraud." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain stability, and deliver justice....
    , amateur scientist
  • Joseph Black
    Joseph Black

    Joseph Black was a Scottish physician, physicist, and chemist, known for his discoveries of latent heat, specific heat, and carbon dioxide. He was a founder of thermochemistry who developed many pre-thermodynamics concepts, such as heat capacity, and was the mentor for James Watt....
     (1728-1799) physicist
    Physics

    Physics is the natural science which examines basic concepts such as energy, force, and spacetime and all that derives from these, such as mass, charge, matter and its Motion ....
     and chemist
    Chemistry

    Chemistry is the science concerned with the composition, structure, and properties of matter, as well as the changes it undergoes during chemical reactions....
    , first to isolate carbon dioxide
    Carbon dioxide

    Carbon dioxide is a chemical compound composed of two oxygen atoms covalent bond to a single carbon atom. It is a gas at standard temperature and pressure and exists in Earth's atmosphere in this state....
  • Hugh Blair
    Hugh Blair

    Hugh Blair , was a Scotland author, considered one of the first great theorists of written discourse.As a Presbyterian preacher and occupant of the Chair of Rhetoric and Belles Lettres at the University of Edinburgh, Blair?s teachings had a great impact in both the spiritual and the secular realms....
     (1718-1800) minister, author
  • James Boswell
    James Boswell

    James Boswell, 9th Laird of Auchinleck was a lawyer, diarist, and author born in Edinburgh, Scotland; he is best known for his biography of Samuel Johnson....
     (1740-1795) lawyer
    Lawyer

    A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an Attorney at law, counsel or solicitor; a person licensed to practice fraud." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain stability, and deliver justice....
    , author of Life of Johnson
    Life of Johnson

    The Life of Samuel Johnson or The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL. D. is a biography of Dr. Samuel Johnson written by James Boswell. It is regarded as an important stage in the development of the modern genre of biography; many have claimed it as the greatest biography written in English language....
  • Thomas Brown
    Thomas Brown (philosopher)

    Thomas Brown was a Scotland metaphysics.He was born at Kirkmabreck, Kirkcudbright, where his father Rev. Samuel Brown was parish clergyman. He was a wide reader and an eager student....
     (1778–1820), Scottish moral philosopher and philosopher of mind
    Philosophy of mind

    Philosophy of mind is the branch of philosophy that studies the nature of the mind, mental events, mental functions, mental property, consciousness and their relationship to the physical body, particularly the brain....
    ; jointly held the Chair of Moral Philosophy at Edinburgh University with Dugald Stewart
    Dugald Stewart

    Dugald Stewart , Scotland philosopher, was born in Edinburgh. His father, Matthew Stewart , was professor of mathematics in the University of Edinburgh ....
  • James Burnett, Lord Monboddo
    James Burnett, Lord Monboddo

    James Burnett, Lord Monboddo was a Scotland judge, scholar of language evolution and philosopher. He is most famous today as a founder of modern comparative historical linguistics ....
     (1714-1799) philosopher, judge
    Judge

    A judge, or arbiter of justice, is a lead official who presides over a court of law,which is operated by the local, state, and/or federal government....
    , founder of modern comparative historical linguistics
    Linguistics

    Linguistics is the science study of natural language. Linguistics encompasses a number of sub-fields. An important topical division is between the study of language structure and the study of Meaning ....
  • Robert Burns
    Robert Burns

    Robert Burns was a poet and a lyricist. He is widely regarded as the national poet of Scotland, and is celebrated worldwide. He is the best known of the poets who have written in the Scots language, although much of his writing is also in English and a 'light' Scots dialect, accessible to an audience beyond Scotland....
      (1759-1796) poet
    Poet

    A poet is a person who writes poetry....
  • Alexander Campbell
    Alexander Campbell (Restoration movement)

    Alexander Campbell was an early leader in the Second Great Awakening of the religious movement that has been referred to as the Restoration Movement, or Stone-Campbell Movement....
     (1788-1866) founder of the Restoration Movement
    Restoration Movement

    The Restoration Movement began during the Second Great Awakening early nineteenth century as a movement to reform the church and unite Christians....
  • George Campbell
    George Campbell (Presbyterian minister)

    George Campbell was a Scottish Enlightenment philosopher, minister of religion, theologian, and professor of divinity. Campbell had three focuses to his intellectual life: language, theology, and rhetoric....
     (1719-1796) philosopher of language
    Language

    A language is a form of symbol communication in which elements are combined to represents something other than themselves. Language can also refer to the use of such systems as a general phenomenon....
    , theology
    Theology

    Theology is the study of the existence or attributes of a deity or gods, or more generally the study of religion or spirituality. It is sometimes contrasted with religious studies: theology is understood as the study of religion from an internal perspective , and religious studies as the study of religion from an external perspective....
    , and rhetoric
    Rhetoric

    Rhetoric is the art of using language as a means to persuade. Along with logic and dialectic, rhetoric is one of the three ancient arts of discourse....
  • Sir John Clerk of Eldin
    John Clerk of Eldin

    Sir John Clerk of Eldin was the seventh son of Sir John Clerk, 2nd Baronet. Clerk of Eldin was a figure in the Scottish Enlightenment, best remembered for his influential writings on naval tactics in the Age of Sail....
     (1728-1812) prolific artist, author of An Essay on Naval Tactics
    Naval tactics in the Age of Sail

    Naval tactics in the Age of Sail were used from the early 1600s onward when sailing ships replaced oared galleys. These were used until the 1860s when steam power ironclad warships rendered sailing line of battle ships obsolete....
    ; great-uncle of James Clerk Maxwell
    James Clerk Maxwell

    James Clerk Maxwell was a Scotland Mathematical physics. His most significant achievement was the development of the classical electromagnetic theory, synthesizing all previous unrelated observations, experiments and equations of electricity, magnetism and even optics into a consistent theory....
  • William Cullen
    William Cullen

    William Cullen was a Scottish Physician and chemist....
     (1710-1790) physician
    Physician

    A physician, medical practitioner, doctor of medicine, or medical doctor practices medicine, and is concerned with maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease and injury....
    , chemist
    Chemist

    A chemist is a scientist trained in the science of chemistry. Chemists study the composition of matter and its properties such as density, acidity, size and shape....
    , early medical researcher
  • Adam Ferguson
    Adam Ferguson

    Adam Ferguson, also known as Ferguson of Raith was a philosopher and historian of the Scottish Enlightenment. He is sometimes called "the Fathers of scientific fields of modern sociology."...
     (1723-1816) considered the founder of sociology
    Sociology

    Sociology is a branch of the social sciences that uses systematic methods of Empiricism and critical theory to develop and refine a body of knowledge about human social structure and activity, sometimes with the goal of applying such knowledge to the pursuit of social welfare....
  • Andrew Fletcher
    Andrew Fletcher

    Andrew Fletcher of Saltoun was a Scotland writer, politician and Scottish patriot. He was a Commissioner of the old Parliament of Scotland and opposed the 1707 Acts of Union 1707 between Scotland and England....
     (1653-1716) a forerunner of the Scottish Enlightenment, writer, patriot, commissioner of Parliament of Scotland
  • James Hall, 4th Baronet
    James Hall, 4th Baronet

    Sir James Hall of Dunglass, 4th Baronet was a Geology and geophysicist, born at Dunglass, Haddingtonshire, to Sir John Hall, 3rd Baronet , by his spouse, Magdalen daughter of Sir Robert Pringle, 3rd Baronet, of Stichill, Roxburghshire....
     (1761-1832) geologist, geophysicist
  • Henry Home, Lord Kames
    Henry Home, Lord Kames

    Henry Home, Lord Kames was a Scotland philosopher of the 18th century. Born at Kames House, between Eccles, Berwickshire and Birgham, Berwickshire, he became an advocate and was one of the leaders of the Scottish Enlightenment....
     (1696-1782) philosopher, judge, historian
    Historian

    A historian is an individual who studies and writes about history, and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, systematic narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all events in time....
  • David Hume
    David Hume

    David Hume was a Scotland philosopher, economist, historian and a key figure in the history of Western philosophy and the Scottish Enlightenment....
     (1711-1776) philosopher, historian, essayist
  • Francis Hutcheson
    Francis Hutcheson (philosopher)

    Francis Hutcheson was a philosopher born in Kingdom of Ireland to a family of Scotland Presbyterians who became one of the founding fathers of the Scottish Enlightenment....
     (1694-1746) philosopher of metaphysics
    Metaphysics

    Metaphysics investigates principles of reality transcending those of any particular science. cosmology and ontology are traditional branches of metaphysics....
    , logic
    Logic

    Logic is the study of the principles of valid demonstration and inference. Logic is a branch of philosophy, a part of the classical Trivium . The word derives from Greek language ?????? , fem....
    , and ethics
    Ethics

    Ethics is a word for a philosophy that encompasses proper conduct and good living. It is significantly broader than the common conception of ethics as the analyzing of right and wrong....
  • James Hutton
    James Hutton

    James Hutton Doctor of Medicine was a Scotland geologist, physician, Natural history, chemist and experimental Agriculture. He is considered the father of modern geology....
      (1726–1797) founder of modern geology
  • Sir John Leslie
    John Leslie (physicist)

    Sir John Leslie was a Scotland mathematician and physicist best remembered for his research into heat.Leslie gave the first modern account of capillary action in 1802 and froze water using an air-pump in 1810, the first artificial production of ice....
     (1766-1832) mathematician, physicist, investigator of heat
    Heat

    In physics and thermodynamics, heat is any transfer of energy from one body or thermodynamic system to another due to a difference in temperature....
     (thermodynamics
    Thermodynamics

    In physics, thermodynamics is the study of the conversion of heat energy into different forms of energy ; different energy conversions into heat energy; and its relation to macroscopic variables such as temperature, pressure, and volume....
    )
  • James Mill
    James Mill

    James Mill was a Scotland historian, economist, political theorist, and philosopher. He was the father of influential philosopher of classical liberalism, John Stuart Mill....
     (1773-1836) late in the period - Father of John Stuart Mill
    John Stuart Mill

    John Stuart Mill , United Kingdom philosopher, political economy, civil servant and Parliament of the United Kingdom, was an influential liberalism thinker of the 19th century....
    .
  • John Millar (1735-1801) philosopher, historian
    Historian

    A historian is an individual who studies and writes about history, and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, systematic narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all events in time....
    , historiographer
    Historiography

    Historiography is the aspect of semiotics that is the study of how knowledge of the past, recent or distant, is obtained and transmitted. Broadly speaking, historiography examines the writing of history and the use of historical methods, drawing upon such elements such as authorship, sourcing, interpretation, style, bias, and audience....
  • John Playfair
    John Playfair

    John Playfair Royal Society of Edinburgh, Fellow of the Royal Society was a Scotland scientist and mathematics, and a professor of natural philosophy at the University of Edinburgh....
     (1748-1819) mathematician, author of Illustrations of the Huttonian
    James Hutton

    James Hutton Doctor of Medicine was a Scotland geologist, physician, Natural history, chemist and experimental Agriculture. He is considered the father of modern geology....
     Theory of the Earth
  • Allan Ramsay
    Allan Ramsay (poet)

    Allan Ramsay was a Scotland poet....
     (1686 - 1758) poet
    Poet

    A poet is a person who writes poetry....
  • Henry Raeburn
    Henry Raeburn

    Sir Henry Raeburn was a Scotland portrait Painting....
     (1756-1823) portrait
    Portrait

    A portrait is a portrait painting, portrait photography, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expression is predominant....
     painter
    Painting

    Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . In art, the term describes both the act and the result, which is called a painting....
  • Thomas Reid
    Thomas Reid

    Thomas Reid , Scotland philosopher, and a contemporary of David Hume, was the founder of the Scottish School of Common Sense, and played an integral role in the Scottish Enlightenment....
     (1710-1796) philosopher, founder of the Scottish School of Common Sense
    Scottish School of Common Sense

    The Scottish School of Common Sense was a school of philosophy that flourished in Scotland in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Its roots can be found in responses to the writings of such philosophers as John Locke, George Berkeley and David Hume, where its most prominent members were, among others, Thomas Reid and Sir William Hamilton...
  • William Robertson
    William Robertson

    Field Marshal Sir William Robert Robertson, 1st Baronet, Order of the Bath, Order of St Michael and St George, Royal Victorian Order, Distinguished Service Order was a British officer who served as Chief of the Imperial General Staff from 1916 to 1918 during the First World War....
     (1721-1793) one of the founders of modern historical research
  • Sir Walter Scott
    Walter Scott

    Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet, was a prolific Scotland historical novelist and poet popular throughout Europe during his time.In some ways Scott was the first English-language author to have a truly international career in his lifetime, with many contemporary readers all over Europe, Australia, and North America....
     (1771-1832) lawyer, novelist, poet
  • John Sinclair
    Sir John Sinclair, 1st Baronet

    Sir John Sinclair, 1st Baronet a Scotland politician, writer on finance and agriculture and the first person to use the word statistics in the English language, in his vast, pioneering work, Statistical Accounts of Scotland, in 21 volumes....
     (1754 - 1835) politician
    Politician

    A politician is an individual who is involved in influencing public decision making through the influence of politics or a person who influences the way a society is governed....
    , writer, the first person to use the word statistics
    Statistics

    Statistics is a Mathematics pertaining to the collection, analysis, interpretation or explanation, and presentation of data. It also provides tools for prediction and forecasting based on data....
     in the English language
  • William Smellie
    William Smellie

    William Smellie may refer to:*William Smellie , Scottish encyclopedist*William Smellie , obstetrician and the "father of British midwifery"...
     (1740-1795) editor of the first edition of Encyclopædia Britannica
    Encyclopædia Britannica

    The Encyclop?dia Britannica is a general English language encyclopedia published by Encyclop?dia Britannica, Inc., a privately held company....
  • Adam Smith
    Adam Smith

    Adam Smith was a Scotland Ethics and a pioneer of political economy. One of the key figures of the Scottish Enlightenment, Smith is the author of The Theory of Moral Sentiments and The Wealth of Nations....
     (1723-1790) whose The Wealth of Nations
    The Wealth of Nations

    An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations is the magnum opus of the Scotland economist Adam Smith. It is a clearly written account of economics at the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, as well as a rhetorical piece written for the generally educated individual of the 18th century - advocating a free market econom...
     was the first modern treatise on economics
    Economics

    File:Ballard Farmers' Market - vegetables.jpgEconomics is the Social sciences that studies the Production theory basics, Distribution , and Consumption of Good and Service ....
  • Dugald Stewart
    Dugald Stewart

    Dugald Stewart , Scotland philosopher, was born in Edinburgh. His father, Matthew Stewart , was professor of mathematics in the University of Edinburgh ....
     (1753-1828) moral philosopher
  • George Turnbull (1698-1748), theologian, philosopher and writer on education
  • John Walker (naturalist)
    John Walker (naturalist)

    John Walker was Professor of Natural history at the University of Edinburgh from 1779 to 1803. He was a protege of the chemist William Cullen and a colleague of Dugald Stewart, Joseph Black and several other Edinburgh professors who shaped the intellectual milieu of the Scottish Enlightenment....
     (1730-1803) professor
    Professor

    The meaning of the word professor varies. In some English-speaking countries, it refers to a senior academic who holds a departmental chair, especially as head of the Academic department, or a personal chair awarded specifically to that individual....
     of natural history
    Natural history

    Natural history is the scientific research of plants or animals, leaning more towards the observational than experimental methods of study, and encompasses more research that is published in magazines than in academic journals....
  • James Watt
    James Watt

    James Watt was a Scottish inventor and mechanical engineer whose improvements to the steam engine were fundamental to the changes brought by the Industrial Revolution in both the Kingdom of Great Britain and the world....
     (1736-1819) student of Joseph Black
    Joseph Black

    Joseph Black was a Scottish physician, physicist, and chemist, known for his discoveries of latent heat, specific heat, and carbon dioxide. He was a founder of thermochemistry who developed many pre-thermodynamics concepts, such as heat capacity, and was the mentor for James Watt....
    ; engineer
    Engineer

    An engineer is a person professionally engaged in a field of engineering. Engineers are concerned with developing economical and safe solutions to practical problems, by applying mathematics and scientific knowledge while considering technical constraints....
    , inventor
    Inventor

    An inventor is a person who creates or discovers a new method, form, device or other useful means. The word inventor comes form the latin verb invenire, invent-, to find....
     (see Watt steam engine
    Watt steam engine

    The Watt steam engine was the first type of steam engine to make use of steam at a pressure just above atmospheric pressure to drive the piston helped by a partial vacuum....
    )


Plus two who visited and corresponded with Edinburgh scholars:
  • Erasmus Darwin
    Erasmus Darwin

    Erasmus Darwin , was an England physician, natural philosopher, physiologist, abolitionist, inventor and poet. He was one of the founder members of the Lunar Society, a discussion group of pioneering industrialists and natural philosophers....
     (1731-1802) physician
    Physician

    A physician, medical practitioner, doctor of medicine, or medical doctor practices medicine, and is concerned with maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease and injury....
    , botanist, philosopher, grandfather of Charles Darwin
    Charles Darwin

    Charles Robert Darwin Royal Society was an English people natural history who realised and presented compelling evidence that all species of life have evolution over time from common descent, through the process he called natural selection....
  • Benjamin Franklin
    Benjamin Franklin

    Benjamin Franklin was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States of the United States. A noted polymath, Franklin was a leading author and Printer , Satire, list of political philosophers, politician, scientist, inventor, activism, statesman, and diplomacy....
     (1706-1790) polymath
    Polymath

    A polymath is a person whose knowledge is not restricted to one subject area. In less formal terms, a polymath may simply refer to someone who is very knowledgeable....
    , one of the Founding Fathers of the United States
    Founding Fathers of the United States

    The Founding Fathers of the United States were the political leaders who signed the United States Declaration of Independence or otherwise participated in the American Revolution as leaders of the Patriot s, or who participated in drafting the United States Constitution eleven years later....

Further reading


  • A Hotbed of Genius: The Scottish Enlightenment 1731-1790. David Daiches
    David Daiches

    David Daiches was a Scotland literary history and literary critic, scholar and writer. He wrote extensively on English literature, Scottish literature and Scottish culture....
    , Peter Jones, Jean Jones (eds).
· Edinburgh University Press
Edinburgh University Press

File:Edinburgh university crest.svgEdinburgh University Press is the premier scholarly publisher in Scotland of academic books and journals and one of the leading university presses in the UK....
, 1986. Hardcover: ISBN 0 85224 537 8.
· Saltire Society
Saltire Society

The Saltire Society was established in 1936 to encourage everything that might improve the quality of life in Scotland and restore the country to its proper place as a creative force in European civilisation....
 1996. Paperback: ISBN 0-85411-069-0.


  • Crowded With Genius: Edinburgh's Moment of the Mind. James Buchan
    James Buchan

    James Buchan, born June 11, 1954, is a British novelist and journalist....
· Harper Perennial
HarperCollins

HarperCollins is a publishing company owned by News Corporation. It is the combination of the publishers William Collins, Sons and Co Ltd, a British company, and Harper & Row, an American company....
 2004. Paperback: ISBN 006055889X, ISBN 978-0060558895.


  • The Scottish Nation: A History 1700-2000. Thomas Devine.
· Viking
Viking

A Viking is one of the Norsemen explorers, warriors, merchants, and Piracy who raided and colonized wide areas of Europe from the late eighth to the early eleventh century....
, 1999. Hardcover: ISBN 0670888117, ISBN 978-0670888115.
· Penguin
Penguin Books

Penguin Books is a United Kingdom publisher founded in 1935 by Allen Lane. Lane's idea was to provide quality writing cheaply, for the same price as a pack of cigarettes....
, 2001. Paperback: ISBN 0141002344, ISBN 978-0141002347.


  • The Scottish Enlightenment: The Historical Age of the Historical Nation. Alexander Broadie
    Professor of Logic and Rhetoric, Glasgow

    The Professor of Logic and Rhetoric is a professorship at the University of Glasgow. The Nova Erectio of King James VI of Scotland shared the teaching of Moral Philosophy, Logic and Natural Philosophy among the Regents....
    .
· Birlinn
Birlinn Limited

Birlinn Limited is an independent publishing house based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Established in 1992 by Managing Director Hugh Andrew, Birlinn Limited is comprised of a number of imprints, including, among others:...
 2002. Paperback: ISBN 1-84158-151-8, ISBN 978-1841581514.


  • America's Founding Secret: What the Scottish Enlightenment Taught Our Founding Fathers. Robert W. Galvin.
· Rowman & Littlefield
Rowman & Littlefield

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers Inc. was founded in 1949. It is an independent publishing house which offers scholarly works for the Academia market....
, 2002. Hardcover: ISBN 0-7425-2280-6, ISBN 978-0742522800.


  • The Cambridge Companion to the Scottish Enlightenment. (Cambridge Companions to Philosophy) Alexander Broadie, ed.
· Cambridge University Press
Cambridge University Press

Cambridge University Press is a printer and publisher granted a Royal Letters Patent by Henry VIII of England in 1534. It is the world's oldest continually operating book publisher....
, 2003. Hardcover: ISBN 0521802733, ISBN-13: 9780521802734. Paperback: ISBN 0521003237, ISBN 978-0521003230.


  • The Mark of the Scots: Their Astonishing Contributions to History, Science, Democracy, Literature, and the Arts. Duncan A. Bruce.
· (Publisher?) 1996. Hardcover: ISBN 1559723564, ISBN 978-1559723565.
· Citadel, Kensington Books
Kensington Books

Kensington Publishing Corp. is the largest publisher in the United States that is not considered one of the six "major publishers." As the major publishers, Random House, HarperCollins, Penguin Putnam, Simon & Schuster, Little, Brown and Company and St....
, 2000. Paperback: ISBN 0-8065-2060-4, ISBN 978-0806520605.


  • How the Scots Made America. Michael Fry.
· Thomas Dunne Books, St. Martin's Press
St. Martin's Press

St. Martin's Press is a book publisher headquartered in the iconic Flatiron Building in New York City. Currently, St. Martin's Press is one of the United States' largest publishers, bringing to the public some 700 titles a year under eight imprints, which include St....
, 2004. Hardcover: ISBN 0-312-33876-7, ISBN 978-0312338763.


  • Scotland: A New History. Michael Lynch.
· Pimlico, Random House
Random House

Random House, Inc. is the world's largest English-language general trade book publisher. It has been owned since 1998 by the large German Privately held company media corporation Bertelsmann and has become the umbrella brand for Bertelsmann book publishing....
, 1992 (new edition). Paperback: ISBN 0-7126-9893-0, ISBN 978-0712698931.


  • Virtue, Learning and the Scottish Enlightenment: Ideas of Scholarship in Early Modern History. David Allan.
· Edinburgh University Press
Edinburgh University Press

File:Edinburgh university crest.svgEdinburgh University Press is the premier scholarly publisher in Scotland of academic books and journals and one of the leading university presses in the UK....
, 1993. ISBN 978-0748604388.


External links

  • .
  • - an introduction.