ABSTRACT
A common reading of Scottish intellectual history finds within it a radical break between the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries when Reformed theology was almost wholly displaced by Enlightenment philosophy as the principal focus of intellectual activity in Scotland. One consequence of this conception is that Scotland’s most famous philosopher – Hume – does not belong to either side of this historical division. He was evidently neither a participant in nor a contributor to the theological debates of the Reformers. But he was also at odds with the Reidian “School of Common Sense” that came to be particularly identified with the philosophers of the Scottish Enlightenment. This chapter rejects this familiar reading and argues that some key elements of the Scottish intellectual tradition can be said to have transcended the Reformation/Enlightenment divide. It further claims that when this continuity is properly understood, Hume’s affinity to the Scottish intellectual tradition, as well as his differences with it, can be more clearly appreciated.
