ABSTRACT
Much of intellectual life in eighteenth-century Scotland is marked by the phenomenon nowadays called the “Scottish Enlightenment” – a flourishing exchange of ideas in a quite remarkably tolerant public space, involving thinkers interested in topics like philosophy, ethics, religion, psychology, history, law, politics, the natural sciences and the arts. Many shared a belief in the possibility of improving the world in both natural and moral matters. Some famous authors associated with the Scottish Enlightenment are Francis Hutcheson, David Hume and Adam Smith (to whom this chapter is going to devote much attention), Hugh Blair, George Campbell, Adam Ferguson, Henry Home (Lord Kames), Thomas Reid, William Robertson and Dugald Stewart.
