The Scottish philosophy, biographical, expository, critical, from Hutcheson to Hamilton

Prefatory Note

This work has been with me a labor of love. The gathering of materials for it, and the writing of it, as carrying me into what I feel to be interesting scenes, have afforded me great pleasure, which is the only reward I am likely to get. I publish it, as the last, and to me the only remaining, means of testifying my regard for my country — loved all the more because I am now far from it — and my country's philosophy, which has been the means of stimulating thought in so many of Scotland's sons.

The English-speaking public, British and American, has of late been listening to divers forms of philosophy, — to Coleridge, to Kant, to Cousin, to Hegel, to Comte, to Berkeley, — -and is now inclined to a materialistic psychology. Not finding permanent satisfaction in any of these, it is surely possible that it may grant a hearing to the sober philosophy of Scotland.

M. Cousin has remarked that the philosophy of Scotland is part of the history of the country. I have treated it as such ; and I claim to have one qualification for the work : I am in thorough sympathy with the characteristic sentiments of my native land. I have farther tried to make my work a contribution to what iv PREFATORY NOTE.

may be regarded as a new department of science, the history of thought, which is quite as important as the history of wars, of commerce, of literature, or of civilization.

Some of these articles have appeared in the " North British Review," the " British and Foreign Evangelical Review," and the "Dublin University Magazine;" but the greater number are now given to the public for the first time, and all of them have been rewritten.

J. McC

Princeton, New Jersey, October, 1874.

CONTENTS,

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1/ I. Characteristics of the School i

i II. State of Scotland n

l III. Precursors of the School 22

I/IV. Shaftesbury, 1671-1713 29

V. Gershom Carmichael, 1672-1729 36

VI. Andrew Baxter, 1686-1750 42

" VII. Francis Hutcheson, 1 694-1 746 49

VIII. Religious Conflicts — Ralph Erskine 86

IX. Archibald Campbell, died 1756 89

X. Alexander Moncrieff, died 1761 90

XI. Rise of the Aberdeen Branch 91

XII. George Turnbull, 1698-1748 95

XIII. David Fordyce, 1711-1751 106

XIV. William Duncan, 17:7-1760 107

v XV. John Stevenson, 1694-1775 107

XVI. Sir John Pringle, 1707-1782 109

XVII. Thomas Boston 109

XVIII. David Dudgeon, 1706-1743 in

XX. Books Advertised in "Scot's Magazine" ... 161

1/ XXII. Henry Home (Lord Kames), 1696-1782 173 vi CONTENTS.

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XXIII. American Philosophy — John Witherspoon, 1722-

1794 183

XXIV. James Balfour, 1705-1795 190

XXV. Alexander Gerard, 1728-1795 191 v^

XXVII. The Aberdeen Philosophical Society .... 227**^/

7 XXVIII. James Oswald, died 1793 229

XXIX. James Beattie, 1735-1802 230

XXX. George Campbell, 1719-1796 239 ,y

XXXI. James Burnett (Lord Monboddo), 1714-1799 . . 245

XXXII. Adam Ferguson, 1723-1816 255

XXXIII. James Hutton, 1726-1797 261

XXXIV. John Gregory, 1724-1773 263 •

XXXV. James Gregory, 1 753-1821 264

XXXVI. Alexander Crombie, i 760-1 842 265

XXXVII. Archibald Arthur, 1774-1797 266

XXXVIII. John Bruce, 1744-1826 267

XXXIX. Review of the Century 267

XL. Dugald Stewart, 1753-1828 275

XLI. William Lawrence Brown, 1 755-1 830 .... 307

XLII. Archibald Alison, 1757— 1839 3°8

XLIII. George Jardine, 1742-1827 316

XLIV. Thomas Brown, 1778-1820 317

XLV. Francis Jeffrey, 1773-1850 337

XLVI. Sir James Mackintosh, 1765-1832 346

XLVII. Henry Lord Brougham, 1779- 1868 360

XLVI 1 1. James Mylne, died 1839 364

LI I. John Ballantyne, 1 778-1 830 388

LIII. Thomas Chalmers, 1780-1847 393

CONTENTS. vii

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LIV. John Abercrombie, 1780-1844 406

LVII. Sir William Hamilton, 1791-1856 415

LVIII. The Metaphysics of the Future 454