{"title":"‘Climate’ in the Eighteenth Century: James Dunbar and the Scottish Case","authors":"Christopher J. Berry","doi":"10.3366/EDINBURGH/9781474415019.003.0004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3366/EDINBURGH/9781474415019.003.0004","url":null,"abstract":"Climate as a category was often used to explain social diversity; the alternative was to invoke history. Dunbar provides a middle-way between these two positions, as represented by Montesquieu’s account of physical causes and Hume’s account of moral causes. He articulates a notion of local circumstances as a key to a reconciliation.","PeriodicalId":256622,"journal":{"name":"Essays on Hume, Smith and the Scottish Enlightenment","volume":"22 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-06-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128642003","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Lusty Women and Loose Imagination: Hume’s Philosophical Anthropology of Chastity","authors":"Christopher J. Berry","doi":"10.3366/edinburgh/9781474415019.003.0010","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3366/edinburgh/9781474415019.003.0010","url":null,"abstract":"The theme is sexual regulation, and its necessity in the light of the dynamics of sex and reproduction, as outlined in Hume’s philosophy. The focus is on his treatment of chastity. The analysis uncovers some more general anthropological assumptions and their bearing upon what Rawls calls the ‘circumstances of justice’. The interplay between chastity as an artificial convention and its natural foundations is developed. Hume’s version of the ‘double-standard’ is identified and the role of socialisation emphasised.","PeriodicalId":256622,"journal":{"name":"Essays on Hume, Smith and the Scottish Enlightenment","volume":"24 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-06-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"134024906","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Adam Smith: Commerce, Liberty and Modernity","authors":"Christopher J. Berry","doi":"10.3366/EDINBURGH/9781474415019.003.0018","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3366/EDINBURGH/9781474415019.003.0018","url":null,"abstract":"Using Rousseau as a foil, Smith’s coupling of opulence and freedom functions as a vindication of the modern world of commerce. Smith executes this via a historical analysis of the collapse of feudalism, a moral theory that pivots on the process of moralisation as a socialisation together with a political account of the centrality of justice. Despite his awareness of drawbacks in a commercial society, Smith judges that it remains superior to earlier forms of social life.","PeriodicalId":256622,"journal":{"name":"Essays on Hume, Smith and the Scottish Enlightenment","volume":"112 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-06-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122976600","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"James Dunbar and Ideas of Sociality and Language in Eighteenth-Century Scotland","authors":"Christopher J. Berry","doi":"10.3366/edinburgh/9781474415019.003.0002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3366/edinburgh/9781474415019.003.0002","url":null,"abstract":"Uses Dunbar’s distinctive account of sociality to highlight some aspects of the wider Scottish discussion. Central to Dunbar’s argument is his own version of stadial theory that enables him to argue that human sociality is neither instinctive nor rational. Among others, Kames’ alternative position is used as a foil.","PeriodicalId":256622,"journal":{"name":"Essays on Hume, Smith and the Scottish Enlightenment","volume":"9 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-06-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124956544","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Adam Smith on Liberty ‘in our present sense of the word’","authors":"Christopher J. Berry","doi":"10.3366/edinburgh/9781474415019.003.0021","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3366/edinburgh/9781474415019.003.0021","url":null,"abstract":"The paper explores what Smith’s self-conscious reference to freedom ‘in our present sense of the word’ reveals about his understanding of modernity. Using the exact textual reference in the Wealth of Nations, a distinction is drawn between private (discretionary) and civic liberty. The latter is outmoded as manifest in its support for sumptuary legislation and its embodiment in the restrictive practices of corporations. The former embodies the modern meaning of freedom because unlike the latter it enables the dissemination of universal opulence which the use of civic liberty constricts.","PeriodicalId":256622,"journal":{"name":"Essays on Hume, Smith and the Scottish Enlightenment","volume":"16 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-06-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115400248","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"James Dunbar and the Enlightenment Debate on Language","authors":"Christopher J. Berry","doi":"10.3366/EDINBURGH/9781474415019.003.0003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3366/EDINBURGH/9781474415019.003.0003","url":null,"abstract":"Dunbar’s contribution to the widespread Enlightenment debate on the origin and development of language is explored. His account is compared to those offered by his contemporaries and his own four-fold development of human faculties outlined.","PeriodicalId":256622,"journal":{"name":"Essays on Hume, Smith and the Scottish Enlightenment","volume":"47 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-06-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129325875","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Hume on Happiness","authors":"Christopher J. Berry","doi":"10.3366/edinburgh/9781474415019.003.0015","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3366/edinburgh/9781474415019.003.0015","url":null,"abstract":"Examines Hume’s understanding of happiness, what it is and what its role or significance is. His argument is placed in the context of two historically salient senses of happiness, as eudaimonic (represented by Aristotle) and hedonic (represented by Bentham). Further elucidation of Hume’s position is provided by a comparison with Stoicsm and the modern discipline of ‘happiness studies’. Hume’s argument is integral to his broad defence of the material advantages of commercial society.","PeriodicalId":256622,"journal":{"name":"Essays on Hume, Smith and the Scottish Enlightenment","volume":"6 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-06-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122263362","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Hume and the Customary Causes of Industry, Knowledge and Humanity","authors":"Christopher J. Berry","doi":"10.3366/edinburgh/9781474415019.003.0011","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3366/edinburgh/9781474415019.003.0011","url":null,"abstract":"Examines Hume’s account of economic development as a subset of the history of civilisation, which is presented by him as a history of customs and manners. Since Hume believes that the subject matter of ‘economics’ is amenable to scientific analysis, the focus is on his employment of causal analysis and how he elaborates an analysis of customs as causes to account for social change. This is executed chiefly via an examination Hume’s Essays, though the History of England (as a test case) and the Treatise of Human Nature for its expression of Hume’s seminal analysis of causation are also incorporated.","PeriodicalId":256622,"journal":{"name":"Essays on Hume, Smith and the Scottish Enlightenment","volume":"122 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-06-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127995571","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Adam Smith’s ‘Science of Human Nature’","authors":"Christopher J. Berry","doi":"10.3366/edinburgh/9781474415019.003.0020","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3366/edinburgh/9781474415019.003.0020","url":null,"abstract":"There is no programmatic statement in Smith about the nature of human nature only, rather, a profuse scattering of remarks. However, it is clear that he shared the aspirations of the 'Enlightenment project', within which a self-awareness of a ‘conception of man’ was focal. There was a convergence on the idea that human nature is constant and uniform in its operating principles. By virtue of this constancy human nature was predictable so that once it was scientifically understood then, as Hume argued, a new foundation was possible for, inter alia, morals, criticism, politics and natural religion. While Smith is more circumspect he shares Hume’s ambitions for the “science of man”, which Smith calls the “science of human nature” and which he believes was, even in the seventeenth century, in its “infancy.” What Smith implies about this ‘science’ is explicated.","PeriodicalId":256622,"journal":{"name":"Essays on Hume, Smith and the Scottish Enlightenment","volume":"4 2","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-06-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114127144","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Adam Smith and the Virtues of a Modern Economy","authors":"Christopher J. Berry","doi":"10.3366/EDINBURGH/9781474415019.003.0019","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3366/EDINBURGH/9781474415019.003.0019","url":null,"abstract":"Outlines Smith’s argument that how, and why, the moral standards by which ‘economics’ was judged needed to be recalibrated for the modern world of commerce. By labelling this a ‘recalibration’, the implication is that when Smith displaces the dominant view of economic morality he replaces it with another; he does not, contrary to some interpretations by both friend and foe, situate economics in an ethics- free zone.","PeriodicalId":256622,"journal":{"name":"Essays on Hume, Smith and the Scottish Enlightenment","volume":"16 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-06-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116968022","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}