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School of Thought: The Scottish Enlightenment

The 18thC Enlightenment was a European, even a trans-Atlantic phenomemon. Two of its main centres of intellectual activity were France and Scotland. The latter country produced an extraordinary amount of “enlightened” historical, economic, legal, and philosophical analysis by figures such as Adam Smith, David Hume, and Francis Hutcheson.

For additional information about the Scottish Enlightenment see in the Forum: Timeline on the Scottish Enlightenment.

David Hume (1711-1776)	Adam Smith (1723-1790)	Sir James Mackintosh (1765-1832)

For further information see:

• The series of books published by Liberty Fund on Natural Law and Enlightenment, each one of which has a useful editor’s introduction or foreword.
• Eugen F. Miller’s Foreword to David Hume, Essays Moral, Political, Literary, ed. Eugene F. Miller (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund 1987).
• Laurence L. Bongie, David Hume: Prophet of the Counter-revolution (2nd ed.), Foreword by Donald W. Livingston (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 2000).
• The editors’ introductions and forewords to the The Glasgow Edition of the Works and Correspondence of Adam Smith (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 1982).

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