The Sociological Heritage of the Scottish Enlightenment - (Edinburgh Studies in Scottish Philosophy) by Tamás Demeter

About the Book

Explores the impact of Enlightenment philosophers in Scotland on the development of sociology.

Book Synopsis

This book provides answers to two sorts of questions. It explores, on the one hand, how and what sociological ideas were developed in the Scottish Enlightenment. And, on the other hand, how the ideas of the Scottish Enlightenment would emerge and develop in subsequent traditions of sociology. Scottish Enlightenment thinkers developed and refined a descriptive-explanatory approach and methodology to explore social and economic processes - an approach that was different from the normative and justificatory aspirations of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century social and political philosophies. This distinct contribution of the Scottish Enlightenment is frequently overlooked, even if some of its central figures are acknowledged as important forerunners of contemporary social sciences.
This book offers a synoptic view on individual contributions and a connective view of theoretical achievements that are otherwise typically treated in isolation.

Review Quotes

Social scientists these days often attempt to identify ideal types that can be described by mathematical models. Scottish Enlightenment thinkers, in contrast, have found the foundations of inquiry in "the experimental method", in the practice of empirical reasoning that would become the foundation of various social sciences - or as they back in the eighteenth century called them comprehensively: the "science of human nature". In their hands, human nature turns out to be the product of society that varies with history, and whose understanding requires imagination and a study of actual processes. This book is recommended to social scientists who intend to go beyond the elegant, but infertile, mathematical modelling of human behaviour.--Ivan Szelényi, Yale University

The Scottish Enlightenment has been of intense interest for philosophers and the history of economics. It's long overdue to reclaim it for social theory and sociology. This wonderful collection re-introduces and deepens our knowledge of this fertile intellectual period. While the collection displays impeccable historical scholarship, it also re-invites us to return to contemporary social theory with fresh and wiser questions.--Eric Schliesser, University of Amsterdam