1Will Roper
HIST 210
Ed Mathieu
The Scottish Enlightenment
The Scottish Enlightenment of the eighteenth century produced some of the great writers
and thinkers of the time.
But there was something different about this group of geniuses.
They
were refined and yet coarse at the same time.
Lord Kames, for example, is considered to have
done more to promote philosophy in Scotland that all the men of law had done for the century
before, yet he never claimed to be well read, and his favorite term of affection and reproach to
both men and women was the word “bitch.”
My favorite quote in particular was his when he
said goodbye to his legal colleagues with the exclamation, “Fare ye all well, ye bitches!”
(Daiches).
As I said, Scotland produced a wide variety of thinkers, both men and women.
While, philosophy and thought soared throughout Edinburgh and Scotland, it still seemed
to come as a secondary priority.
Very few of the thinkers and writers in Edinburgh actually
wrote to provide for themselves.
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- Fall '07
- Scotland, Edinburgh, Walter Scott, Robert Burns, Scottish Enlightenment
-
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