Editor's note: After the publication of George Berkeley <Principles> (1710) and <Three Dialogues> (1713), philosophy in Great Britain was dominated by Scottish philosophers until about 1850.The Scottish philosophical movement is usually described as beginning with Gershom Carmichael at around 1700, and concluding with William Hamilton (d.1856).
These 50 or so philosophers were university teachers at Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, and at other smaller schools in Scotland.Unable to obtain university employment, Hume is the most notable exception to the list.McCosh believes that adherence to the inductive method of investigation is the distinctive feature found throughout Scottish Philosophy.
More than 100 years after the its publication, McCosh's <Scottish Philosophy> remains the most comprehensive account of these philosophers.McCosh was born in 1811 in Ayshire, Scotland.He studied at the Universities of Glasgow and Edinburgh, and received his M.A.from the latter in 1834.He was a pastor for several years and instrumental in establishing the Free Church of Scotland.From 1868-1888 he was president of the College of New Jersey (Princeton University).He continued living there until his death in 1894.McCosh's other philosophical writings include <The Method of the Divine Government, Physical and Moral> (1850), <The Intuitions of the Mind> (1860), <An Examination of Mr.
J.S.Mill's Philosophy> (1866), and <Realistic Philosophy Defended in a Philosophic Series> (2 vol., 1886-1887).
McCosh was a harsh critic of both Mill's empiricism and Hamilton's idealism.Following Reid, he argued that intuitive mental principles shape our experiences and establish the authority of our fundamental beliefs.
THE
SCOTTISH PHILOSOPHY
Biographical, Expository, Critical FROM HUTCHESON TO HAMILTONBY
JAMES McCOSH, LL.D., D.D.
PRESIDENT OF THE COLLEGE OF NEW JERSEY, PRINCETONLondon:
MACMILLAN AND CO.
1875
JAMES McCOSH, LL.D., D.D., PRESIDENT OF THE COLLEGE OF NEW JERSEY, PRINCETONLondon:
MACMILLAN AND CO.
1875
PREFATORY NOTE.
T/HIS work has been with me a labor of love.The gathering of materials for it, and the writing of it, as carrying me into what I feel to be interesting scenes, have afforded me great pleasure, which is the only reward I am likely to get.I publish it, as the last, and to me the only remaining, means of testifying my regard for my country --loved all the more because I am now far from it -- and my country's philosophy, which has been the means of stimulating thought in so many of Scotland's sons.
The English-speaking public, British and American, has of late been listening to divers forms of philosophy, -- to Coleridge, to Kant, to Cousin, to Hegel, to Comte, to Berkeley, -- and is now inclined to a materialistic psychology.Not finding permanent satisfaction in any of these, it is surely possible that it may grant a hearing to the sober philosophy of Scotland.
M.Cousin has remarked that the philosophy of Scotland is part of the history of the country.I have treated it as such; and I claim to have one qualification for the work: Iam in thorough sympathy with the characteristic sentiments of my native land.I have farther tried to make my work a contribution to what {iv} may be regarded as a new department of science, the history of thought, which is quite as important as the history of wars, of commerce, of literature, or of civilization.
Some of these articles have appeared in the "North British Review," the "British and Foreign Evangelical Review," and the "Dublin University Magazine; " but the greater number are now given to the public for the first time, and all of them have been rewritten.
J.MCC.
P/RINCETON, New Jersey, October, 1874.
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