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Scottish Enlightenment

The Scottish Enlightenment (Scots: Scots Enlichtenment, Scottish Gaelic: Soillseachadh na h-Alba) was the period in 18th- and early-19th-century Scotland characterised by an outpouring of intellectual and scientific accomplishments. By the eighteenth century, Scotland had a network of parish schools in the Scottish Lowlands and five universities. The Enlightenment culture was based on close readings of new books, and intense discussions which took place daily at such intellectual gathering places in Edinburgh as The Select Society and, later, The Poker Club, as well as within Scotland's ancient universities (St Andrews, Glasgow, Edinburgh, King's College, and Marischal College).[1][2]

Sharing the humanist and rational outlook of the Western Enlightenment of the same time period, the thinkers of the Scottish Enlightenment asserted the importance of human reason combined with a rejection of any authority that could not be justified by reason. In Scotland, the Enlightenment was characterised by a thoroughgoing empiricism and practicality where the chief values were improvement, virtue, and practical benefit for the individual and society as a whole.


Among the fields that rapidly advanced were philosophy, political economy, engineering, architecture, medicine, geology, archaeology, botany and zoology, law, agriculture, chemistry and sociology. Among the Scottish thinkers and scientists of the period were Joseph Black, James Boswell, Robert Burns, William Cullen, Adam Ferguson, David Hume, Francis Hutcheson, James Hutton, Lord Monboddo, John Playfair, Thomas Reid, Adam Smith, and Dugald Stewart.


The Scottish Enlightenment had effects far beyond Scotland, not only because of the esteem in which Scottish achievements were held outside Scotland, but also because its ideas and attitudes were carried all over Great Britain and across the Western world as part of the Scottish diaspora, and by foreign students who studied in Scotland.

(1689–1748) architect

William Adam

(1721–1792) architect

John Adam

(1728–1792) architect and artist

Robert Adam

(1732–1794) architect and designer

James Adam

(1757–1839) essayist

Archibald Alison

(1744–1796) painter and illustrator

David Allan

(1692-1770), mathematician, He discovered the Stirling approaches.

James Stirling

(1662–1728) lawyer, antiquary and historian

James Anderson

(1739–1808) agronomist, lawyer

James Anderson

(1667–1735) physician, satirist and polymath

John Arbuthnot

(1709–1779) physician, poet and satirist

John Armstrong

(1762–1851) poet and dramatist

Joanna Baillie

(1761–1840) minister, educational reformer and linguist

George Husband Baird

(1735–1803) philosopher and poet

James Beattie

(1753–1832) priest and educationalist

Andrew Bell

(1774–1842) surgeon, physiologist and neurologist

Sir Charles Bell

(1767–1830) engineer

Henry Bell

of Antermony (1691–1780) doctor and traveller

John Bell

(1728–1799) physicist and chemist, first to isolate carbon dioxide

Joseph Black

(1701–1757) classical scholar and historian

Thomas Blackwell

(1776–1834) publisher, founder of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine

William Blackwood

(1718–1800) minister, author

Hugh Blair

(1749–1834) physician

Sir Gilbert Blane of Blanefield, 1st Baronet

(1740–1795) lawyer, author of Life of Johnson

James Boswell

(1732–1812) piano manufacturer

John Broadwood

(1778–1868) Englishman born, educated and active in Edinburgh, advocate, journalist and statesman

Henry Peter Brougham, 1st Baron Brougham and Vaux

(1773–1858) botanist

Robert Brown

(1778–1820) philosopher

Thomas Brown

of Kinnaird (1730–1794) African explorer

James Bruce

(1669–1735) Moscow-born Scot, Count of the Russian Empire, statesman, general, diplomat and scientist

James Daniel (Yakov) Bruce

(1736–1818) traveller and author

Patrick Brydone

(1742–1829) founder of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland

David Steuart Erskine, 11th Earl of Buchan

[97] (1759–1796) poet

Robert Burns

(1713–1792) politician, botanist, literary and artistic patron, first President of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland

John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute

(1746–1812) architect, active in Russia

Charles Cameron

(1719–1796) philosopher

George Campbell

(1777–1844) poet

Thomas Campbell

(1722–1805) church leader and autobiographer

Alexander Carlyle

(1795–1881) historian and philosopher

Thomas Carlyle

(1780–1847) minister and political economist

Thomas Chalmers

(1723–1796) architect

Sir William Chambers

(1709–1789) writer, author of Fanny Hill

John Cleland

(1676–1755) politician, lawyer, judge and antiquary

Sir John Clerk of Penicuik, 2nd Baronet

(1728–1812) artist, navalist

Sir John Clerk of Eldin

(1757–1832) advocate, judge and collector

John Clerk, Lord Eldin

(1774–1827) publisher

Archibald David Constable

(c 1740-1810/1) chemist

William Cruickshank

(1739–1795) architect, designer of the Edinburgh New Town

James Craig

(1710–1790) physician, chemist, medical researcher

William Cullen

(1739–1806) industrialist, merchant and philanthropist

David Dale

(1737–1808) geographer

Alexander Dalrymple

(1619-1695) lawyer and statesman

James Dalrymple, 1st Viscount of Stair

(1703–1785) doctor, President of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh

Sir Alexander Dick, 3rd Baronet of Prestonfield

(1694 – 1770) genealogist

Sir Robert Douglas of Glenbervie, 6th Baronet

(1735/6 – 1779) writer and Orientalist

Alexander Dow

(1688–1766) accountant-general and politician, Lord Provost of Edinburgh

George Drummond

(1721–1809) educator and linguist

James Elphinston

(1677–1718) doctor and naturalist, head and reformer of Russian medicine, compiled first herbarium in Russia and discovered mineral waters

Robert Erskine (doctor)

(1746–1817) advocate and politician

Henry Erskine

(c.1675–1739) mathematician, active in Russia where he introduced Arabic numerals and logarithms

Henry Farquharson

(1723–1816) considered the founder of sociology

Adam Ferguson

(1710–1776) astronomer and instrument maker

James Ferguson

(1750–1774) poet

Robert Fergusson

of Saltoun (1653–1716) forerunner of the Scottish Enlightenment,[98] writer, patriot, commissioner of Parliament of Scotland

Andrew Fletcher

(1736–1802) physician and chemist

George Fordyce

(1712–1775) printer

Andrew Foulis

(1707–1776) printer and publisher

Robert Foulis

(1779–1839) novelist

John Galt

(1728–1795) minister, academic and philosophical writer

Alexander Gerard

(1756–1815) caricaturist and printmaker

James Gillray

(1706?–1766) historical writer

Walter Goodall

of Auchintoul (1669/70–1752) general and memoirist

Alexander Gordon

(1692?–1755) antiquary and singer

Alexander Gordon

(c.1691–1750) writer and translator from Latin

Thomas Gordon (writer)

(1714–1797) philosopher, mathematician and antiquarian

Thomas Gordon

(1724–1773) physician, medical writer and moralist

John Gregory

(1753–1805) physician

John Grieve

(1743–1807) physician, mineralogist and traveller

Matthew Guthrie

(1726–1792) advocate, judge and historian

Sir David Dalrymple, Lord Hailes

(1761–1832) geologist, geophysicist

Sir James Hall, 4th Baronet

(1739–1802) physician

Alexander Hamilton

(1723–1798) painter and archaeologist

Gavin Hamilton

(1730–1803) diplomat, antiquarian, archaeologist and vulcanologist

Sir William Hamilton

(1755–1826) violin maker, called the 'Scottish Stradivari'

Matthew Hardie

(1770–1835) writer, author of The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner

James Hogg

(1719–1813) physician

Francis Home

(1722–1808) minister and writer, author of Douglas

John Home

(1725–1786) physician and botanist

John Hope

(1778–1817) politician, lawyer and political economist

Francis Horner

(1728–1793) surgeon

John Hunter

(1718–1783) anatomist, physician

William Hunter

(1711–1776) philosopher, historian and essayist

David Hume

(1694–1746) philosopher

Francis Hutcheson

[69][97] (1726–1797) founder of modern geology

James Hutton

(1759–1838) minister, philologist and antiquary

John Jamieson

(1774–1854) Scottish naturalist and mineralogist

Robert Jameson

(1773–1850) advocate, journalist and literary critic, founder of the Edinburgh Review

Francis Jeffrey, Lord Jeffrey

(1696–1782) philosopher, judge, historian and agricultural improver

Henry Home, Lord Kames

(1742–1826) caricaturist and engraver

John Kay

(1735 – 1820) chemist, geologist, industrialist and inventor

James Keir

(1732–1781) composer and virtuoso violinist

Thomas Alexander Erskine, 6th Earl of Kellie

of Lauriston (1671–1729) economist, banker, active in France

John Law

(1766–1832) mathematician, physicist

Sir John Leslie

(1716–1794) doctor, pioneer of naval hygiene

James Lind

(1736–1812) naturalist and physician

James Lind

(1767–1849) botanist and translator of Dante

Charles Lyell (botanist)

(1756–1836) engineer and road-builder

John Loudon MacAdam

(1768–1838) statistician, abolitionist

Zachary Macaulay

(1745?–1793) printer, co-founder of the Encyclopædia Britannica

Colin Macfarquhar

(1764–1820) explorer of North America

Sir Alexander Mackenzie

(1745–1831) lawyer and writer

Henry Mackenzie

(1688–1770) first Professor of History at Edinburgh University and in the British Isles

Charles Mackie

(1765–1832) jurist, politician and historian

Sir James Mackintosh

(1766–1843) chemist, inventor of waterproof fabrics

Charles Macintosh

(1698–1746) mathematician

Colin Maclaurin

(1736–1796) writer, author of Ossian

James Macpherson

(Malloch) (c.1705–1765) writer

David Mallet

(1741–1805) botanist

Francis Masson

(1705–1793) jurist, judge and politician

William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield

(1742–1811) advocate and statesman

Henry Dundas, 1st Viscount Melville

(1719–1811) engineer and inventor

Andrew Meikle

(1749/56–1831) architect, active in Russia

Adam Menelaws

(1773–1836) philosopher

James Mill

(1705–1768) publisher

Andrew Millar

(1735–1801) philosopher, historian

John Millar

(1714–1799) judge, founder of modern comparative historical linguistics

James Burnett, Lord Monboddo

I (1697–1767) physician, founder of Edinburgh Medical School

Alexander Monro

II of Craiglockhart and Cockburn (1733–1817) anatomist, physician

Alexander Monro

(1725–1789) advocate

John Monro of Auchinbowie

(1740–1793) painter

Jacob More

(1702–1768) astronomer, patron of science, President of the Philosophical Society of Edinburgh and of the Royal Society

James Douglas, 14th Earl of Morton

(1709/10–1773) physician and naturalist

James Mounsey

of Huntershill (1765–1799) political reformer

Thomas Muir

(1754–1839) engineer and inventor

William Murdoch

(1775–1813) minister and philologist

Alexander Murray

(1778–1843) publisher

John Murray

Lady Nairne, née Oliphant (1766–1845) writer and song collector

Carolina Nairne

(c.1741–1812) musician and music publisher

William Napier

(1782–1849) poet

William Nicholson

(1657-1725) lawyer, antiquarian and heraldist

Alexander Nisbet

(1736–1819) classicist, numismatist and land reformer

William Ogilvie of Pittensear

(1710–1769) composer, cellist and music publisher

James Oswald

(1771–1806) explorer of West Africa

Mungo Park

Welsh naturalist, traveller, writer and antiquarian (1726–1798), whose travel writings and collected pictorial representations of Scotland inspired the 'petit' grand tour fueling philosophical and artistic re-interpretation of landscape appreciation in Scotland.

Thomas Pennant

(1758–1826) antiquarian, cartographer and historian

John Pinkerton

(1652–1713) physician and bibliophile

Archibald Pitcairne

(1748–1819) mathematician, geologist

John Playfair

(1755–1794) architect

James Playfair

(1759–1823) engineer, political economist, founder of graphical methods of statistics

William Playfair

(1776–1850) historical novelist

Jane Porter

(1777–1842) artist, author, diplomat and traveller

Sir Robert Ker Porter

(1707–1782) physician

Sir John Pringle, 1st Baronet

[99] (1686–1758) poet

Allan Ramsay

(1713–1784) portrait painter

Allan Ramsay

(1686–1743) writer, based in France

Andrew Michael Ramsay

[58] (1756–1823) portrait painter

Henry Raeburn

(1710–1796) philosopher, founder of the Scottish School of Common Sense

Thomas Reid

(1761–1821) civil engineer

John Rennie

(1743–1814) author and literary scholar

William Richardson

(1721–1793) historian, minister and Principal of the University of Edinburgh

William Robertson

(1739–1805) physicist, mathematician and philosopher, first General Secretary of the Royal Society of Edinburgh

John Robison

(1777–1856) Arctic explorer

Sir John Ross

(1751–1815) surgeon and botanist, founding father of Indian botany

William Roxburgh

(1674–1757) classical scholar

Thomas Ruddiman

(1736–1785) painter

Alexander Runciman

(1744–1768/9) painter

John Runciman

(1695–1779) physician

John Rutherford

(1749–1819) physician, chemist and botanist

Daniel Rutherford

(1731–1809) English Topographical and landscape painter, among the first to depict Scotland as a place of landscape appreciation in its natural state, influencing Robert Adam and John Clerk of Eldin.

Paul Sandby (artist)

(1771–1832) novelist, poet

Sir Walter Scott

(1641–1722) physician and antiquary

Sir Robert Sibbald

of Ulbster (1754–1835) writer, statistician

Sir John Sinclair

(c.1745–1796) political reformer

William Skirving

(1740–1795) editor of the first edition of Encyclopædia Britannica

William Smellie

(1723–1790) philosopher and political economist

Adam Smith

(1771–1845) English writer, co-founder of Edinburgh Review

Sydney Smith

(1721–1771) writer

Tobias Smollett

(1780–1872) science writer, astronomer, polymath

Mary Somerville

(1753–1828) philosopher

Dugald Stewart

(1692–1770) mathematician

James Stirling

(1721–1792) engraver

Sir Robert Strange

(1742–1786) journalist and historian

Gilbert Stuart

(1764–1831) engineer, inventor, builder of the first practical steamboat

William Symington

(1774–1810) poet

Robert Tannahill

(1735–1799) gem engraver and modeller

James Tassie

(1757–1834) civil engineer and architect

Thomas Telford

(1700–1748) poet, author of The Seasons

James Thomson

(1757–1851) collector and publisher of the music of Scotland

George Thomson

(1760–1832) physician

Thomas Trotter

(1698–1748) theologian, philosopher and writer on education

George Turnbull

(1711–1792) lawyer and historian

William Tytler

(1747–1813) advocate, judge, writer and historian

Alexander Fraser Tytler, Lord Woodhouselee

(1750–1798) Reverend, Natural History and History, 1st Statistical Account. First to represent entrochi for Scotland and appreciate Scottish natural history in any detail in History of Rutherglen & East Kilbride, 1793.

David Ure

(died 1732) painter

Richard Waitt

(1731–1803) minister and natural historian

John Walker (naturalist)

(1736–1819) inventor of a more efficient, practical steam engine

James Watt

(1742–1798) a Founding Father of the United States, signer of United States Declaration of Independence

James Wilson

(1723–1794) a Founding Father of the United States, signer of US Declaration of Independence

John Witherspoon

Plus those who visited and corresponded with Scottish scholars:[69]

American Enlightenment

John Amyatt

Books in the "Famous Scots Series"

Industrial Revolution in Scotland

Broadie, Alexander, ed. The Scottish Enlightenment: An Anthology (1998), primary sources.

excerpt and text search

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Northern Lights: How modern life emerged from eighteenth-century Edinburgh

– an introduction (archived 26 October 2004)

Scottish Enlightenment

– Philosophical play readings of the legacy of David Hume, Adam Smith and Robert Burns

Living philosophy

– has references and links

Edinburgh Old Town Association

BBC Radio 4 discussion with Tom Devine, Karen O'Brien and Alexander Broadie (In Our Time, Dec. 5, 2002)

"The Enlightenment in Scotland"