Francis Hutcheson (1694-1746)

About Hutcheson

  • Professor of Moral Philosophy at Glasgow, 1729-1746
  • Educated in Ireland and at Glasgow where he was a student of John Loudoun (ODNB*)

Teaching

  • Recommended reading, ‘To the Students in Universities’ in A Short Introduction to Moral Philosophy includes Grotius, Cumberland, Pufendorf, Harrington, Carmichael’s commentary on de officio hominis et civis, Shaftesbury, Locke, Barbeyrac, and Bynkershoek, pp. i-iv Available from Online Library of Liberty
  • ‘renowned as a moral preacher who taught in an animated and extemporaneous fashion’ (ODNB* at entry for Thomas Reid whose ‘dry manner’ is contrasted)

Publications

  • F Hutcheson, Essay on the Nature and Conduct of the Passions and Affections, with Illustrations on the Moral Sense (Dublin and Glasgow, 1728) Available from the Internet Archive
  • F Hutcheson, Philosophiae moralis institutio compendiaria, ethices & jurisprudentiae naturalis elementa continens (Glasgow, 1742) Available from the Internet Archive
  • F Hutcheson, A short introduction to moral philosophy, in three books; containing the elements of ethicks and the law of nature. By Francis Hutcheson, Lld. Late Professor of Philosophy in the University of Glasgow. Translated from the Latin (Glasgow: Robert Foulis, 1747) (Book II: ‘Elements of the Law of Nature’) Available from Online Library of Liberty and Google Books

NPG D4399; Francis Hutcheson by Francesco Bartolozzi, after  A. Selvi

Francis Hutcheson
by Francesco Bartolozzi, after A. Selvi
stipple engraving, circa 1750-1800
NPG D4399
© National Portrait Gallery, London
Creative Commons Licence

*For references, see the Site Bibliography.

Dugald Stewart (1753-1828)

About Stewart

  • Professor of moral philosophy at Edinburgh, 1778-1810

Publications, Manuscripts and Other Resources

  • Outlines of Moral Philosophy for the Use of Students in the University of Edinburgh (Edinburgh: W. Creech, 1793) [Many editions into the nineteenth century]
  • Philosophical essays (Edinburgh : William Creech, 1810)
  • The philosophy of the active and moral powers of men  (Edinburgh : London printed for Adam Black, Edinburgh; and Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green, London, 1828)
  • Lectures and Letters of Dugald Stewart (1753-1828) [circa 21 mss volumes, some fragile – access may be restricted; includes notes from lectures on moral philosophy] [EUL, various shelfmarks. See details at Archives Hub entry: http://archiveshub.ac.uk/data/gb237-coll-505]
  • Lecture notes of Dugald Stewart by Robert Eden Scott on moral philosophy (1785-1786) [Lecture notes on moral philosophy taken at Edinburgh University] [AUL, MS 190-191]

NPG 1428; Dugald Stewart by John Henning
Dugald Stewart
by John Henning
pencil and chalk, 1811
NPG 1428
© National Portrait Gallery, London
Creative Commons Licence

*For references, see the Site Bibliography.

David Verner (d. 1752)

About Verner

  • Regent at Aberdeen

Teaching

  • ‘Natural jurisprudence figured in his 1731 thesis…since he there alluded to Grotius and Puffendorf, and touched on the origins of private property rights.’ (Wood, Aberdeen Enlightenment 39*)

Publications, Manuscripts and other Resources

  • Dissertatio philosophica, de passionibus sive affectibus, quam … in auditorio publico Academiae Novae Abredonensis, ad diem [ ] Aprilis, propugnabunt, David Verner praeses, et hi candidati laurea magisteriali condonandi (Abredeis : Nicol, 1721) [University of Aberdeen, Special Collections: SBL 1721 N 1 (Xerox copy)]
  • Dissertatio … philosophica … de finibus bonorum et benevolentia (Aberdeen, 1730) [University of Glasgow, Special Collections: Sp Coll BG57-k.34]

*For references, see the Site Bibliography.

 

James Beattie (1735-1803)

About Beattie

  • Professor of Moral Philosophy and Logic at Marischal College (1760-1797)
  • Sometime librarian at Marischal College

NPG D23555; James Beattie by James Watson, after  Sir Joshua Reynolds

James Beattie
by James Watson, after Sir Joshua Reynolds, mezzotint,
published 1775 (1773)
NPG D23555
© National Portrait Gallery, London
Creative Commons Licence

Publications

  • An essay on nature and immutability of truth; in opposition to sophistry and scepticism. By James Beattie, Professor of Moral Philosophy and Logic in Marischal College and University of Aberdeen (Edinburgh: printed for A. Kincaid & J. Bell. Sold, at London, by E. & C. Dilly, in the Poultry, 1770) [multiple editions into the 19th century] Second edition (1772) available online from Google Books.
  • Dissertations moral and critical. On memory and imagination. On dreaming. The theory of language. On fable and romance. On the attachments of kindred. Illustrations on sublimity. By James Beattie, LL. D. Professor of Moral Philosophy and Logick in the Marischal College and University of Aberdeen; and Member of the Zealand Society of Arts and Sciences (London: printed for W. Stahan, and T. Cadell in the Strand; and W. Creech, at Edinburgh, 1783) First volume available onine through Google Books.
  • Elements of Moral Science. By James Beattie, LL. D. Professor Of Moral Philosophy And Logick In Marischal College, Aberdeen (printed for T. Cadell, London, and William Creech, Edinburgh, [1790-93])
  • James Beattie’s Day-book, 1773-1798, edited with an introduction and notes by Ralph S. Walker (Aberdeen : Printed for the Third Spalding club, 1948)

Material in Libraries and Archives

  • Papers of and relating to James Beattie (1735-1803) Professor of Moral Philosophy and Logic, poet, essayist and moral philosopher, c. 1758-c. 1799, University of Aberdeen (Archives Hub Description of Material)
  • ‘James Beattie’s day book’, 2 vols (1768-1798), Universitiy of Aberdeen, Special Libraries and Archives (AUL), MS 30/14-15
  • ‘James Beattie’s “Journal of Session”‘ (1761-1793) and diary of his first visit to London (1773), AUL MS 30/16
  • Notebook entitled ‘List of Books belonging to Dr Beattie, Aberdeen, 27 July 1785’, AUL MS 30/47
  • J Beattie, ‘Essay on Slavery and copy of lectures on moral philosophy and logic’ (1788 and undated), AUL MS 30/49
  • J Beattie, ‘Abstract of lectures on Philosophy of human mind, 1779-1780′(transcribed by Adam Martin), AUL MS M.185
  • J Beattie, ‘Notes on Moral Philosophy, Vol 1, 1773-1774’ (transcribed by James Smith), AUL MS M.185.2
  • J Beattie, ‘Notes on a System of Philosophy’ (1776) (transcribed by W Duncan) , AUL MS M.185.3
  • J Beattie, ‘Abstract of lectures on Philosophy of human mind’ (c 1784), AUL MS M.186
  • J Beattie, ‘Abstract of lectures on Philosophy of human mind’ (nd), AUL MS M.187
  • J Beattie, ‘Elements of moral science’ (1776-1777), AUL MS M 18./1
  • J Beattie, ‘Logicae compendium sub dialogi forma’ (nd),AUL MS M 187.2
  • J Beattie, ‘Abstract of lectures on moral philosophy'(1777-1778) (transcribed by J Findlater), AUL MS M.187.3
  • J Beattie, Lectures, 1780s (transcribed by W Paterson), AUL MS M.404
  • J Beattie, ‘Philosophy’ (1762-1773), AUL MS 555 [514 pages of notes including on jurisprudence and on ethics and moral philosophy and various aspects of ethics (Johnson’s Handlist: Text similar to M.185/30)]

Links

Short James Beattie biography at Northern Lights: The Scottish Enlighenment.

*For references, see the Site Bibliography.

David Fordyce (bap. 1711, d. 1751)

About Fordyce

  • Professor of Moral Philosophy at Marischal College, University of Aberdeen, 1742 to 1751

Teaching

  • The Elements of Moral Philosophy – based on his ethics lectures (Wood, Aberdeen Enlightenment 53*)

Publications, Manuscripts, and other Resources

  • David Fordyce, The Elements of Moral Philosophy, in Three Books with a Brief Account of the Nature, Progress, and Origin of Philosophy, ed Thomas Kennedy (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 2003) Available from Online Library of Liberty.
  • David Fordyce, ‘A Brief Account of the Nature, Progress and Origin of Philosophy delivered by the late Mr. David Fordyce, P. P. Marish. Col: Abdn. to his Scholars, before they begun the Philosophical course. Anno 1743/4’. (Johnson’s Handlist: ‘Fair copy written after death of Fordyce’) [AUL, MS M.184]

*For references, see the Site Bibliography.

Alexander Gerard (1728-1795)

About Gerard

  • Studied with David Fordyce
  • First professor of moral philosophy and logic at Aberdeen, 1753-1760
  • Professor of divinity at Marischal (1760-1771) then King’s College (from 1771), Aberdeen
  • Sometime college librarian at Marischal, c. 1768

Teaching

  • ‘Under the heading of speculative jurisprudence, he focussed on the cluster of concepts connected with the notion of natural law, and claimed that most of these concepts were derived from the immediate perceptions of moral sense’. (Wood, Aberdeen Enlightenment 114*)

*For references, see the Site Bibliography.

Charles Areskine of Alva (1680-1763)

About Areskine

  • Regius Professor of the Law of Nature and Nations (Edinburgh, 1707-1734)
  • Studied in the Netherlands and Italy (1707-11)
  • Admitted advocate 1711, Solicitor General (1725-37), Lord Advocate (1737-42), Lord of Session from 1744, Lord Justice Clerk (1748-63)
  • Private library contained key natural law texts [see Baston, ‘Library’*]

Teaching

  • Natural law included in teaching he did as a regent (tutor) at Edinburgh in the early eighteenth century [see his Theses philosophicae of 1704]
  • Inaugural lecture on ‘God as the Fountain of Law’
  • Advertised class ‘on the Laws of Nature and Nations’ starting 16 Nov 1711 in the Scots Courant [Cairns, ‘First’ 12*]
  • Probably used Grotius De jure belli ac pacis as his textbook [Cairns, ‘First’ 12*]

Publications, Manuscripts and other Resources

  • Lectures on philosophy and physics delivered at Edinburgh [probably by Charles Areskine] (1703) taken by Patrick Wilkie, later minister of Haddington (Advocates Library Adv. MS 20.7.1)
  • Theses philosophicæ, quas, auspice summo numine, generosi aliquot & ingenui juvenes Universitatis Jacobi Regis Edinburgenæ alumni, hac vice cum laurea emittendi, eruditorum examini subjicient, ad 12. diem Maii, H. Lq. S. Præside Carolo Areskine (Edinburgh 1704)

*For references, please see the Site Bibliography.

George Turnbull (1698-1748)

About Turnbull

  • Regent at Aberdeen, 1721-1727
  • Tutor to Andrew Wauchope of Niddry and Thomas Watson

Teaching

  • ‘In his elaborate manual for the education of the virtuous republican citizen and dutiful office-holder in the divine corporation [Observations upon Liberal Education (London, 1742)], Turnbull includes the study of Roman law, followed by natural law, as essential. More particularly, he recommends Grotius, Pufendorf, and his own Heineccius….’ (Haakonssen, Natural law 98*)

Publications, Manuscripts, and other Resources

  • Johann Gottlieb Heineccius, A Methodical System of Universal Law: Or, the Laws of Nature and Nations, with Supplements and a Discourse by George Turnbull. Translated from the Latin by George Turnbull, edited with an Introduction by Thomas Ahnert and Peter Schröder (London 1741; repr Indianapolis: Liberty Fund 2008). Available from Online Library of Liberty.
  • G Turnbull, The Principles of Moral Philosophy (London, 1740) Available from Google Books and the Internet Archive

*For references, see the Site Bibliography.

Henry Scougal (1650-1678)

About Scougal

  • Regent at Aberdeen

Teaching

  • Cited Cumberland, De legibus naturae (1672) in theses of 1673 (Haakonssen, ‘Natural’ 262*)

Publications, Manuscripts and other Resources

  • Philosophiae moralis tractatus (1678) University of Aberdeen, Special Libraries and Archives MS 1026

 

NPG D30917; Henry Scougal by Thomas Trotter

Henry Scougal
by Thomas Trotter
line engraving, published 1796
NPG D30917
© National Portrait Gallery, London
Creative Commons Licence

*For references, please see the Site Bibliography.

John Bruce (1744-1826)

About Bruce

    • Filled in as Chair of Moral Philosophy at Edinburgh to cover for Adam Ferguson in 1774 (ODNB*)
    • Professor of Logic from 1778 at Edinburgh
    • Tutor to Robert Dundas on his Grand Tour (ODNB*)
    • Founding member of the Speculative Society (ODNB*)

NPG D32244; John Bruce by Edward Mitchell, after  Sir Henry Raeburn

John Bruce
by Edward Mitchell, after Sir Henry Raeburn
line engraving, (circa 1794)
NPG D32244
© National Portrait Gallery, London
Creative Commons Licence

Publications, Manuscripts, and other Resources

  • Elements of the science of ethics, on the principles of natural philosophy. By John Bruce, A. M. Professor of Philosophy in the University, and Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (London: printed for A. Strahan; and T. Cadell, in the Strand; and W. Creech, at Edinburgh, [1786]) ESTC T089429
  • Papers of Professor John Bruce [volumes of lectures on moral philosophy (1770) and a copy of First principles of philosophy, for the use of students (1781) [University of Edinburgh, Centre for Research Collections MSS MS Dc.3.44; Dc.10.3-5]

*For references, see the Site Bibliography.

 

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