A Plea for an Integrated Historiography of Natural and Moral Philosophy in Enlightenment Scotland: A Programmatic Essay
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Published:2022-09
Issue:3
Volume:20
Page:183-202
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ISSN:1479-6651
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Container-title:Journal of Scottish Philosophy
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language:en
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Short-container-title:J Scottish Philosophy
Affiliation:
1. Corvinus University of Budapest and
2. Research Centre for the Humanities, Budapest
Abstract
I begin with a diagnosis. Present-day scholarly work on the Scottish Enlightenment is bifurcated: it is either focused on the areas of moral philosophy or of natural philosophy, broadly construed in both cases. The aspiration to combine these inquiries is rare and unsystematic. This paper makes a case for the need and possibility of a perspective that conceives moral and natural inquiry as integrated enterprises in the period. It also suggests that potentially useful interpretive devices can be adopted from the historiography of science and philosophy, as well as science studies.
Publisher
Edinburgh University Press
Subject
Philosophy,History,Cultural Studies