Scottish Enlightenment

Max Skjönsberg for AdamSmithWorks


Adam Ferguson’s approval of Adam Smith's work was not unconditional.
Ferguson once wrote to Smith: ‘You have provoked, it is true, the church, the universities, and the merchants, against all of whom I am willing to take your part; but you have likewise provoked the militia, and there I must be against you.’"
 
March 30, 2022

Max Skjönsberg for AdamSmithWorks


While Adam Ferguson was broadly sympathetic with Adam Smith's ideas regarding political economy (with notable exceptions), in contrast, Ferguson was rather harsh on Smith (and David Hume's) moral philosophy.  Thinking about the sympathetic as well as hostile reception of Smith's ideas can help us make better sense of a range of thinkers and the variety of beliefs in the Scottish Enlightenment period.   

June 8, 2022

Paul Mueller for AdamSmithWorks


March 18, 2020

This timeline shows some of the principal figures of the Scottish Enlightenment and their works, via Online Library of Liberty

The 18th century Enlightenment was a European, even a trans-Atlantic phenomenon. Two of its main centres of intellectual activity were France and Scotland.  Explore our collection of biographies of these figures and their contemporaries.