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.

 

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.

Patrick Hardie

About Hardie

  • Regent at Aberdeen

Teaching

  • ‘…critical of Hobbes, and it would appear from Hardie’s thesis that he attacked Hobbes’s account of moral laws in his lectures on natural jurisprudence’. (Wood, Aberdeen Enlightenment 39-40*)

Publications, Manuscripts and Other Resources

  • Amplissimo ac ornatissimo Domino D. Gulielmo Forbes … theses hasce philosophicas … D.D.C.Q. Patricius Hardie praeses et hi candidati laurea magisteriali condecorandi … Qui … theses hasce … publice propugnabunt, in Collegio Novo Universitatis Carolinae Abredonensis, ad 11 diem Aprilis, 1722 (Aberdeen, 1722)

*For references, see the Site Bibliography.