Scottish Philosophy After the Enlightenment

Highlights the continued flourishing of Scottish philosophy after the Enlightenment by exploring the work of underappreciated figures (such as Alexander Bain, J. F. Ferrier, Thomas Carlyle and John Macmurray) and debates (such as realism vs idealism; metaphysics vs psychology; evolution vs religion; and theism vs agnosticism).

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Beginning with Sir William Hamilton's revitalization of philosophy in Scotland in the 1830s, this book takes up the theme of George Davie's The Democratic Intellect and explores a century of debates surrounding the identity and continuity of the Scottish philosophical tradition. Alexander Bain, J F Ferrier, Thomas Carlyle, Alexander Campbell Fraser, John Tulloch, Henry Jones, Henry Calderwood, David Ritchie, and Andrew Seth Pringle-Pattison are among the once prominent, but now neglected thinkers whose reactions to Hume and Reid stimulated new currents of ideas. Graham concludes by considering the relation between the Scottish philosophical tradition and the twentieth-century philosopher John Macmurray.