This book argues that the 'first' Scottish Enlightenment was championed by minority groups traditionally assumed to have been backward-looking and conservative-

Traditional accounts of the Scottish Enlightenment present the half-century or so before 1750 as, at best, a not-yet fully realised precursor to the era of Hume

Although overshadowed by his contemporaries Adam Smith and David Hume, the Scottish philosopher Adam Ferguson strongly influenced eighteenth-century currents of

In this important work, the author illuminates how the founding fathers' motives, thoughts, and actions were framed by the Scottish Enlightenment.

The late eighteenth century witnessed an explosion of intellectual activity in Scotland by such luminaries as David Hume, Adam Smith, Hugh Blair, William Robert