The Scottish Philosophy: Biographical, Expository, Critical, from Hutcheson to Hamilton

James McCoshCambridge University Press2011

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Chapters
10
ISBN
9781108040860

Tags

Philosophy and Religion Western Philosophy History of PhilosophyPhilosopherIntellectual HistoryEnlightenmentScottish Enlightenment

Summary

This is a history of Scottish philosophy by the Scottish philosopher James McCosh (1811–1894), first published in 1875, with the subtitle "Biographical, Expository, Critical, from Hutcheson to Hamilton." A graduate of the University of Glasgow and a former minister of the Church of Scotland, the author later taught for many years and served as president of the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University), and was an important heir to the Scottish school of common sense. Organized around individual figures, the book introduces one by one the lives, doctrines, and merits and shortcomings of the leading philosophers of the Scottish Enlightenment in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and argues that "Scottish philosophy" constitutes an independent school with shared methodological characteristics. The figures discussed include Shaftesbury, Gershom Carmichael, Andrew Baxter, Francis Hutcheson, Thomas Reid, Dugald Stewart, Adam Smith, David Hume, and others, with a final chapter devoted to Sir William Hamilton, who greatly influenced the author. The author combines biographical material with doctrinal analysis, summarizing each philosopher's central ideas while also pointing out the criticisms they may invite, and situates Scottish philosophy within the context of national intellectual history and of "the history of ideas" as an emerging discipline. The book was first published in New York by Robert Carter and Brothers and has since been reprinted by several publishers; the Cambridge University Press "Cambridge Library Collection – Philosophy" series reissued a facsimile of the 1875 edition, which is the version corresponding to this entry.

Editor's review

这本书的价值在于“当事人写史”。麦科什本人就是苏格兰常识学派的传人，曾在格拉斯哥、爱丁堡受教，又在普林斯顿执掌哲学教席数十年，由他来梳理从哈奇森到汉密尔顿的思想谱系，既有学理上的体贴，也有史料上的亲近。全书最动人的部分，是作者在序言里把这本书称作“一件出于爱的工作”——他远离故土，以此书回报“苏格兰的思想”。阅读时不妨注意他的双重身份：他既是叙述者，也是辩护者；他一边客观陈述各家的得失，一边明显倾向于里德一系的实在论立场，并借此回应当时英美思想界对康德、孔德、黑格尔乃至唯物心理学的追逐。对中文读者而言，本书可当作理解苏格兰启蒙运动的“人物地图”：哈奇森的道德感、里德的常识原则、斯密的道德情感、休谟的怀疑论、汉密尔顿的哲学，都在同一幅版图里得到定位。剑桥文库影印本保留了 19 世纪的正文与索引，排版清晰，适合与《人性论》《道德情操论》等原典对照阅读。

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Reading tips

  1. 先读开篇“学派的特征”与“苏格兰的状况”两章，把握作者对“苏格兰哲学”的界定，再进入人物各章。
  2. 可配合里德《人类心灵研究》、休谟《人性论》、斯密《道德情操论》对读，把本书当作导读与背景。
  3. 留意作者的评价立场：每章末尾的批评部分往往透露其常识实在论倾向，宜带着辨析的眼光阅读。
  4. 本书篇幅在 480 余页，人物章各自独立，可按兴趣跳读，不必从头至尾依次推进。

About the publisher

Cambridge University Press

Public information about Cambridge University Press in our records is limited, and the available entries do not state its founding background or scale. Judging from the six titles in the collection, its publishing covers biography, philosophy and religion, and science and technology, as well as works on the history of science and intellectual history. Representative titles include Robert Louis Stevenson's Records of a Family of Engineers, James McCosh's The Scottish Philosophy: Biographical, Expository, Critical, from Hutcheson to Hamilton, the first volume of Alfred Russel Wallace's The Malay Archipelago, David Hume's On Public Credit, along with Darwin and Modern Science and Domesday Book and Beyond. Its authors include thinkers and scientific figures such as Hume and Wallace, reflecting a balance between classic works and scholarly editions, with an emphasis on texts of historical value.

Contents

  1. I. Characteristics of the School
  2. II. The Condition of Scotland
  3. III. Forerunners of the School
  4. IV. Shaftesbury (1671–1713)
  5. V. Gershom Carmichael (1672–1729)
  6. VI. Andrew Baxter (1686–1750)
  7. VII. Francis Hutcheson (1694–1746)
  8. VIII. Religious Controversy—Ralph Erskine
  9. IX. Archibald Campbell (d. 1756)
  10. X. Alexander Moncrieff (d. 1761)

FAQ

这本书有中文译本吗？ 据目前可查资料，该书未见正式出版的中文译本，流通的主要是英文原版及影印重印本。中文读者如需阅读，多以英文原著或节选、研究性引述为据，本条目信息也只针对英文版本。
“The Scottish Philosophy”指的是不是“苏格兰启蒙运动”？ 二者相关但不等同。苏格兰启蒙运动是 18 世纪苏格兰在哲学、经济学、历史学等领域的整体思想潮流；本书讨论的“苏格兰哲学”特指以常识原则为方法特征的哲学学派，作者麦科什即以此论证它是一个独立的哲学流派。
本书与剑桥文库版是什么关系？ 本书初版于 1875 年，由纽约 Robert Carter and Brothers 出版。剑桥大学出版社“剑桥文库·哲学”丛书据初版影印重刊，2011 年 12 月推出平装本（ISBN 9781108040860），正文与索引沿用原版，本条目即依据此版本。
詹姆斯·麦科什是谁？ 麦科什（1811—1894）是苏格兰哲学家、苏格兰教会牧师，曾任贝尔法斯特女王学院逻辑与形而上学教授，1868 年起任普林斯顿学院（今普林斯顿大学）院长，直至 1888 年卸任后仍继续讲授哲学，是常识学派在北美的重要传播者。

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About the author

James McCosh Author

James McCosh is a historian of philosophy whose biography and nationality are not well documented in available public sources. The only work of his held in the collection is The Scottish Philosophy: Biographical, Expository, Critical, from Hutcheson to Hamilton. Combining biography, exposition, and criticism, the book traces the development of Scottish philosophy from Hutcheson to Hamilton during the Scottish Enlightenment, and belongs to the study of Western philosophical history. The author attends to the connection between thinkers' lives and their doctrines, offering both historical narrative and philosophical assessment in an academic style of survey and commentary. Given the limited information, his specific career and scholarly background cannot be described in detail; readers may chiefly approach his treatment of the Scottish philosophical tradition through this work.