1st Edition

Enlightenment in Scotland and France Studies in Political Thought

By Mark L. Hulliung Copyright 2019

    Enlightenment in Scotland and France: Studies in Political Thought provides comparative analysis of the Scottish and French Enlightenments. Studies of the two Enlightenments have previously focused on the transnational, their story one of continuity between Scottish intellectuals and French philosophes and of a mutual commitment to combat fanaticism in all its forms. This book contends that what has been missing, by and large, from the scholarly literature is the comparative analysis that underscores the contrasts as well as the similarities of the Enlightenments in Scotland and France.

    This book shows that, although the similarities of "enlightened" political thought in the two countries are substantial, the differences are also remarkable and stand out in culminating relief in the Scottish and French reactions to the American Revolution. Mark Hulliung argues that it was 1776, not 1789, that was the moment when the spokespersons for Enlightenment in Scotland and France parted company.

    Preface

    1. Introduction: Enlightenment in Two Languages and Multiple Dialects

    2. Rousseau and the Scottish Enlightenment

    I. Rousseau and Commercial Society

    II. Did Adam Smith and the Scots Write in Response to Rousseau?

    III. Reconsidering the Letter to the Edinburgh Review

    IV. Rousseau and the Scots: Alternative Approaches

    3. Montesquieu in Scotland and France

    I. Montesquieu’s Enlightened Legacy

    II. Montesquieu in Scotland

    III. Montesquieu in France

    4. Enlightened Morality in Scotland and France

    I. From the Old Philosophy to the New: the Scots

    II. From the Old Philosophy to the New: the French

    III. From Ethics to Politics

    5. Monarchies and Republics in Scotland and France

    I. Modernizing Classical Republicanism

    II. An Anti-Machiavellian Moment

    III. Monarchies and Republics in Scotland

    IV. Monarchies and Republics in France

    6. The Social Contract in Scotland and France

    I. The Social Contract in Scotland: the Early Years

    II. The Social Contract in Scotland: the Later Years

    III. The Social Contract in France: from the Early to the Middle Years

    IV. The Social Contract in France: from the Middle to the Later Years

    V. The Social Contract and the American Revolution

    7. Conclusion: Looking Back, Looking Forward

     

    Biography

    Mark Hulliung is Richard Koret Professor of History, Brandeis University. He has published widely on topics concerning intellectual, cultural, and political history, both European and American. His works include The Autocritique of Enlightenment: Rousseau and the Philosophes and Montesquieu and the Old Regime.

    'Broadly interdisciplinary in its breadth, Hulliung’s study brings precision, subtlety, and nuance to our understanding of the relationship between the French and Scottish Enlightenments. Well-grounded in a detailed knowledge of all relevant texts, his argument moves effortlessly among them, producing original insights that are grounded historically.  Where other scholars have imagined and projected debate and engagement between France and Scotland, Hulliung takes his lead from Montesquieu to offer historicized comparative analyses of moral and political thought, often highlighting significant divergences as well as similarities, and thereby enriching our understanding of the complexity and richness of eighteenth-century philosophy in its movements across the Channel.'

    Julia Simon, University of California, Davis, USA