Postgraduate Course: Philosophy of the Scottish Enlightenment MSc (PHIL11100)
Course Outline
| School | School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences |
College | College of Humanities and Social Science |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Availability | Not available to visiting students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | The course will present the thought of four leading philosophers of the Scottish Enlightenment, Hutcheson, Smith and Reid. Subjects covered will include their treatment of such topics as the role of reason and sentiment in moral judgement, the idea of a moral sense, the standard of taste, virtue, justice, duty, and freedom and necessity. The relevance of these ideas to modern debates will also be discussed.
Shared with UG course Philosophy of the Scottish Enlightenment PHIL10115.
For courses co-taught with undergraduate students and with no remaining undergraduate spaces left, a maximum of 8 MSc students can join the course. Priority will be given to MSc students who wish to take the course for credit on a first come first served basis after matriculation. |
| Course description |
Topics:
Week 1. Introduction to the Scottish enlightenment, and Hutcheson's Aesthetics.
Week 2. Hutcheson's Ethics: the idea of a moral sense.
Week 3. Hume's Ethics: reason, passion and morality.
Week 4. Hume's Ethics: sympathy and the natural virtues.
Week 5. Hume's Ethics: justice.
Week 6. Hume's Aesthetics and its significance for his ethics.
Week 7. Smith's moral psychology: sympathy and the impartial spectator.
Week 8. Smith on moral rules and on virtue.
Week 9 Reid on Freedom and Necessity.
Week 10. Reid's Ethics; the centrality of duty.
Week 11. Review of some central themes in the Scottish Enlightenment, and comparison with other ethical theories.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Course Delivery Information
| Not being delivered |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- understand some major issues in Scottish philosophy of the 18th century
- understand how these issues relate to continuing debates
- read closely, analyse and criticise early modern philosophical texts.
- present and defend arguments
- understand and analyse arguments
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Reading List
Primary reading is drawn from the following works. (These should be on reserve at the University Library, but online versions are listed when available.)
F. Hutcheson. Inquiry into the Original of our Ideas of Beauty and Virtue.
http://oll.libertyfund.org/?option=com_staticxt&staticfile=show.php%3Ftitle=858
F. Hutcheson. Illustrations on the Moral Sense
http://oll.libertyfund.org/index.php?option=com_staticxt&staticfile=show.php%3Ftitle=885&Itemid=28
D. Hume. A Treatise of Human Nature.
http://socserv2.socsci.mcmaster.ca/~econ/ugcm/3ll3/hume/treat.html
D. Hume. 'Of the Standard of Taste' in Essays Moral, Political and Literary.
http://www.bartleby.com/27/15.html
D. Hume. An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals.
http://www.anselm.edu/homepage/dbanach/hume-enquiry%20concerning%20morals.htm
A. Smith. The Theory of Moral Sentiments.
http://www.econlib.org/library/Smith/smMS.html
T. Reid. Essay on the Active Powers of Man.
http://books.google.com/books/about/Essays_on_the_active_powers_of_man.html?id=5ksOAAAAQAAJ
Secondary reading available on Learn. |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Not entered |
| Additional Class Delivery Information |
The course is taught by Dr Andrew Mason. |
| Keywords | Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Prof Theodore Scaltsas
Tel: (0131 6)50 3649
Email: Scaltsas@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Ms Becky Verdon
Tel: (0131 6)51 5002
Email: Rebecca.Verdon@ed.ac.uk |
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