Extra: The Scottish Enlightenment and Smith's Origins
The Scottish Enlightenment was a remarkable intellectual movement that shaped modern economics, philosophy, and social science. Adam Smith was at its center. Learn more from Anna Leman and Michael Munger.
AdamSmithWorks is delighted to introduce a NEW series of podcasts Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations with Mike Munger in anticipation of the 250th anniversary of the book's publication. The podcast is co-released with Michael Munger's podcast, "The Answer is Transaction Costs" [TAITC]. The first episode focuses on the Scottish Enlightenment, a remarkable intellectual movement that shaped modern economics, philosophy, and social science. Adam Smith was at its center.
Listen to the episode here: The Scottish Enlightenment and Smith's Origins
Voltaire famously said, “We look to Scotland for all our ideas of civilization.” While Scotland in the time Voltaire was writing was an uncouth backwater of society, its unique religious, political, and social development created the intellectual environment that birthed the leading thinkers of the Enlightenment including Adam Smith, Thomas Reid, and David Hume. Munger provides the historical background for Smith’s greatest work An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of The Wealth of Nations by exploring the important culture, events, and thinkers that produced the Scottish Enlightenment.
First among these important factors is the Presbyterian Church’s weighty influence on education. The Protestant emphasis on personal scriptural interpretation endorsed literacy, free thinking, deliberation, and questioning authority. This open-mindedness bled into education as parish schools were established. The universities, wholly dependent on tuition, furthered this by offering developing and experimental subjects like philosophy, economics, natural science, politics, and history. The noble and ambitious young men of Scotland turned to these universities for intellectual glory as England’s political unification with Scotland blocked them from gaining political standing. This state, combined with urbanization, fostered communities of intellectuals in cities such as Edinburgh and Glasgow.
First among these important factors is the Presbyterian Church’s weighty influence on education. The Protestant emphasis on personal scriptural interpretation endorsed literacy, free thinking, deliberation, and questioning authority. This open-mindedness bled into education as parish schools were established. The universities, wholly dependent on tuition, furthered this by offering developing and experimental subjects like philosophy, economics, natural science, politics, and history. The noble and ambitious young men of Scotland turned to these universities for intellectual glory as England’s political unification with Scotland blocked them from gaining political standing. This state, combined with urbanization, fostered communities of intellectuals in cities such as Edinburgh and Glasgow.
One important community was the Edinburgh Philosophic Society. Its formation along with Frances Hutcheson’s moral sense theory and the publication of Hume’s controversial A Treatise of Human Nature triggered the rise of intellectual discussion and advancement in the careers of Adam Smith, Thomas Reid, Adam Ferguson, and other great thinkers.
What did these thinkers contribute? According to Munger, “the Scottish Enlightenment combined empirical investigation, moral philosophy, and pragmatic political economy,” reshaping how the Western mind perceived human nature. This combination relied on Newtonian methods of inductive reasoning and assumed the basic good of man. Rejecting the Continental attitude of radical abandonment and rejection of tradition (best exhibited in the French Revolution), it promoted progress as the betterment of current systems, envisioning “incremental improvement, social cooperation, and the moral development of individuals who achieved self-governance within civic life guided by a national government.” Today, “their legacy endures in our understanding of markets, government, and education.”
A cornerstone of this legacy is Smith’s Wealth of Nations. Listen to part two of this mini-series for an overview of Wealth of Nations, its methods, and particular contribution.
Discussion Questions
- The religious attitude of Edinburgh and Scotland played a crucial part in the intellectual environment of Enlightenment Scotland. How is the modern American religious attitude influencing our universities and intellectual circles? Is it a positive or negative effect?
- Considering America’s current state, what would it take for America to have an intellectual revival of the Scottish Enlightenment’s caliber? Is such a thing repeatable? Is it desirable?
- In what ways can we see the Scottish Enlightenment’s key principles of inductive reasoning, incremental progress, and benevolent human nature live on in current thought? Has there been a continued acceptance or rejection of Enlightenment ideals?
Further Reading
Francis Hutcheson's An Essay on the Nature of the Conduct of Passions and Affections
Thomas Adnert’s The Moral Culture of the Scottish Enlightenment: 1690-1805
“Scottish Christianity before the 18th Century” by Paul D. Mueller
Christopher J. Berry’s Social Theory of the Scottish Enlightenment.