Knowra Scottish Enlightenment Scottish Enlightenment An eighteenth-century intellectual movement centered in Scotland that reshaped philosophy, political economy, science, history, and theories of society through inquiry grounded in observation and human experience.
David Hume : A Scottish philosopher and historian whose empiricism and skepticism transformed modern philosophy. His account of human nature and knowledge set the movement’s most influential philosophical agenda.
Empiricism : The view that experience is the primary source of human knowledge. Scottish thinkers used observation and experience to investigate mind and society.
The Wealth of Nations : Adam Smith’s 1776 work analyzing the causes of national wealth, division of labor, markets, and political economy. It made the movement’s analysis of commercial society influential across Europe and beyond.
Classical economics : A tradition of economic thought that analyzes production, distribution, value, and growth, associated with Smith, Ricardo, and their successors. Smith’s political economy became a major foundation for this tradition.
Adam Smith : A Scottish moral philosopher and political economist, best known for The Theory of Moral Sentiments and The Wealth of Nations. He connected moral psychology with an influential analysis of commercial society.
Moral sense theory : The theory that people possess a natural capacity to perceive moral qualities and judge actions. Hutcheson’s version grounded moral judgment in human nature rather than divine command alone.
The Theory of Moral Sentiments : Adam Smith’s 1759 work explaining moral judgment through sympathy and the imagined perspective of an impartial spectator. It applies Scottish moral psychology to the formation of social judgment.
Utilitarianism : An ethical theory that judges actions and policies by their consequences for overall well-being. Later utilitarians adapted questions about social welfare while departing from Scottish moral-sense accounts.
Adam Ferguson : A Scottish historian and philosopher whose work examined civil society, political development, and social change. His account of social development helped establish conjectural history as a method.
Common sense philosophy : A philosophical tradition that treats basic beliefs shared in ordinary life as justified starting points for inquiry. It offered a response to skepticism and became prominent in Scottish universities.
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