The Enlightenment in Scotland: National and International Perspectives. Ed. Jean-François Dunyach, Ann Thomson (Oxford University Studies in the Enlighten ment). Oxford: Voltaire Foundation – University of Oxford, 2015.

• Stefan A. Eick

Conventionally understood, the “Scottish Enlightenment” refers to a group of interconnected Scottish writers of the mid to late eighteenth century, with the “leading lights” David Hume (A Treatise of Human Nature, 1739/1740; The History of England, 1754–1762) and Adam Smith (The Theory of Moral Sentiments, 1759; The Wealth of Nations, 1776), surrounded by a number of “lesser luminaries” such as Francis Hutcheson, Thomas Reid or Lord Kames. This group was affiliated with a “trinity” of institutions, “the Kirk, the universities and the legal system” (Jean-François Dunyach and Ann Thomson, “Introduction”, p. 13), and at its core also occupied with a “trinity” of disciplines, “moral philosophy, history and political economy”. As opposed to its radical French counterpart, the “Scottish Enlightenment” thus tends to be regarded as more “moderate”.