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'Chris Berry's hybrid conceptual inquiries into the political theory of the Scottish Enlightenment are utterly distinctive. Though skeptical of a distinctive "Berry-view", nobody else writes about these topics as he has done for a generation, and reading these essays newly arranged together gives a singularly enlightening sense of both his intellectual evolution and the transformation of his field of study since the 1960s.' Duncan Kelly, University of Cambridge A selection of essays by a renowned scholar on Scottish Enlightenment thinkers and themes This collection of essays by Christopher J. Berry spans several decades and signals multiple shifts across Scottish Enlightenment thinking, Hume and Smith studies. It brings together a range of essays - some of which are difficult to find - along with three new pieces, all of which cumulatively constitute a distinct interpretation. Also included is a substantial introduction which, alongside Berry's personal intellectual history, provides a commentary on the development of the study of the Scottish Enlightenment. Clustered around the themes of sociability, the Humean science of man and the Smithian engagement with commerce and morality, these collected works will be of considerable value to those working in political philosophy, the history of ideas and the history of economic and social theory. Christopher J. Berry is Professor Emeritus of Political Theory and Honorary Professorial Research Fellow at the University of Glasgow. Cover image: A map of North Britain or Scotland, Emanuel Bowen, 1769 (c) Cover design: [EUP logo] edinburghuniversitypress.com ISBN 978-1-4744-1501-9 Barcode
List of contents
Preface and Acknowledgements
Abbreviations
1. The Study of the Scottish Enlightenment: an Autobiographical Journey
Part I: Scottish Enlightenment
Introduction to Part I
2. James Dunbar and Ideas of Sociality and Language in Eighteenth Century Scotland
3. James Dunbar and the Enlightenment Debate on Language
4."Climate" in the Eighteenth Century: James Dunbar and the Scottish Case
5. Sociality and Socialisation
6. Rude Religion: The Psychology of Polytheism in the Scottish Enlightenment
7. 'But art itself is Natural to Man': Ferguson and the Principle of Simultaneity
8. Finding Space for Civil Society
Part II: David Hume
Introduction to Part II
9. Hume on Rationality in History and Social Life
10. Lusty Women and Loose Imagination: Hume's Philosophical Anthropology of Chastity
11. Hume and the Customary Causes of Industry, Knowledge and Commerce
12. Hume's Universalism: The Science of Man and the Anthropological Point of View
13. Hume and Superfluous Value (or the problem with Epictetus' Slippers)
14. Science and Superstition: Hume and Conservatism
15. Hume on Happiness
Part III: Adam Smith
Introduction to Part III
16. Adam Smith's 'Considerations' on Language
17. Smith and Science
18. Adam Smith: Commerce, Liberty and Modernity
19. Adam Smith and the Virtues of a Modern Economy
20. Adam Smith's Science of Human Nature
21. Adam Smith on Liberty 'in our present sense of the word'
About the author
Chris Berry is Professor Emeritus of Political Theory at the University of Glasgow, which he joined from 1970, from the LSE where he completed his doctorate. He is best known for his work on the Scottish Enlightenment and on the idea of luxury. He has given invited keynote lectures on these themes in China, Japan, Chile, the US and in Europe. He is an elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.
Summary
This collection of essays by Christopher J. Berry spans several decades and multiple shifts across Scottish Enlightenment, Hume and Smith studies. It brings together Berry's classic essays some of which are difficult to find with 3 new pieces, which cumulatively constitute a distinct interpretation.
