On the Scottish distinctiveness from late scholasticism to the Scottish enlightenment a preliminary perspective
- PDF / 219,047 Bytes
- 8 Pages / 439.37 x 666.142 pts Page_size
- 32 Downloads / 186 Views
On the Scottish distinctiveness from late scholasticism to the Scottish enlightenment a preliminary perspective Giovanni PATRIARCA 1 # Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2019
Abstract The Scottish Enlightenment is considered a crucial turning point in the history of philosophy. However, as a whole, it cannot be understood without an in-depth analysis of its historical process, beyond its geographic and temporal circumstances. The main aim of this brief article is to demonstrate a common thread in the evolution of the ideas that links the period of Late Scholasticism through the Scottish Enlightenment. In a preliminary perspective, some points will be taken into account: 1) the evolution of legal systems shared by Continental Europeans and Scots, 2) the importance of the Franciscan Medieval tradition, and finally 3) the cross-pollination of proto-economic philosophy through educational institutions and teaching between Europe and Scotland. Keywords History of economic thought . History of philosophy . Law and economics .
History of Scotland . Scottish enlightenment JEL classification B10 . B11;B12 . B15 . B40 . B53 . K39, K40, N00
1 Introduction The Scottish Enlightenment is considered a crucial turning point in the history of philosophy. Its contributions are undeniable, especially in the realm of economic theories, human rights and the rule of law. However, as a whole, it cannot be understood without an in-depth analysis of its historical process, beyond its geographic and temporal circumstances. The main aim of this brief article is to demonstrate a sort of fil rouge, or common thread in the evolution of the ideas that links the period of Late Scholasticism through the Scottish Enlightenment. This article is based on a lecture originally presented during a roundtable at the MPS in Gran Canaria (Spain) in October 2018.
* Giovanni PATRIARCA [email protected] 1
Universidad Francisco Marroquin, Zip: 10 Guatemala, Guatemala
G. Patriarca
In this preliminary perspective, it will be necessary to take some shortcuts. Let’s look, for example, at two aspects of Scholasticism and the Scottish Enlightenment: the legal and the economic. We will discover more things in common than not. During this historical walk, we’re going to stop and see some milestones along the way: 1) the evolution of legal systems shared by Continental Europeans and Scots, 2) the importance of the Franciscan Medieval tradition, (particularly through the contributions of a Scottish Franciscan scholar: John Duns Scotus), and finally 3) the cross-pollination of proto-economic philosophy through educational institutions and teaching between Europe and Scotland, which ultimately leads to ignite the Scottish Enlightenment and influence Adam Smith and his ideas.
2 The Scottish tradition The common starting point is and remains the fundamental concept of the human person, endowed with reason, free will, and inalienable liberty (Bengtsson 2006) – understood as a participant in the natural law (Haakonssen 1985). This concept an
Data Loading...
