Scienza e filosofia Scozzese nell'eta di Hume (review)

92 HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY Kivy brings to his task a great knowledge of the history of philosophy as well as a keen understanding of modern philosophical problems and techniques. The result is a book that is an important contribution to eighteenth-century scholarship, one that provides a firrn foundation for understanding later developments in aesthetics. GEORGEDICKIE University of Illinois, Chicago Circle Antonio Santucci, ed. Scienza e filosofia Scozzese nell'eta di Hume. Bologna: I1 Mulino, 1976. Pp. 345. L. 6,000. This collection of essays presented at a conference held at Bologna in 1975 for the discussion of the scientific and cultural aspects of the Scottish Enlightenmentjustifies the term "the Scottish Miracle" that was applied to it by Trevor Roper, but it also clarifies the individual differences that compel us to study the conspicuous diversities of enlightenment among the Scottish, and that make it impossible to regard the movement as a unified national philosophy or "common sense." Hume is presented not as a central influence, but as the most independent and criticized exponent of what was far from being "common sense." The essays seem to have been arranged by the editor somewhat in historical order from the early illuminism centered in Glasgow to the later scientific eminence of Edinburgh. It is impossible here to review each paper, but listing them in their order and identifying the subject matter of each may serve to describe the themes presented at the Bologna Conference for discussion. 1. Eric G. Forbes (Edinburgh University) describes the early (1670s and 1680s) illuminist ("New Light") movements as they transformed the teaching of philosophy and science at Glasgow University, under the leadership of Hutcheson. The Latin classics and language gave way to the moral theories and psychologies of the virtue of "common sense" or community spirit, and of the essential unity of "the moral sense" and the "religious sense." 2. Eugenio Lecaldano tells the story of the change from Hutcheson's philosophy of a common (community) sense to the emphasis on "sympathy" as the central element of morals. 3. Luigi Turco describes the attempt of Lord Kames to divert Scottish enlightenmenttoward the English (Newton, Locke, etc.) new sciences and to their laws of motion, the principle of inertia, and so on, while Dugald Stewart protested against turning from the social and moral sciences. Hume seemed indifferent. 4. David F. Norton (McGill University) shows how Hume's indifference to these issues was due not to an unwillingness to argue, but to his conviction that he had already refuted all the arguments of his friends. And Norton makes the more general point that Hume was really quite unlike the other participants in the Scottish enlightenment. 5. Emanuele Ronchetti illustrates the same point by taking a specific example, the theory of personal identity, showing how different Hume's analysis is from those of the Scottish commonsense school. 6. Antonio Santucci shifts this discussion to a critique of the later theories of common sense. He selects an extravagant example: James Beattie's Essay on Truth. 7. Giuliano Pancaldi tells the story of Joseph Black, who after graduating at Glasgow, where he had studied under a pioneer Scottish scientist, William Cullen, received in 1754 a medical degree at Edinburgh, and then contributed largely, by his experimental work in chemistry, to making the University of Edinburgh the leading center of scientific research and instruction in Great Britain, probably in all Europe. Black also cooperated with the industrialists of Birmingham who were experimenting with steam power for industrial machines. 8. Maurizio Ferriani gives a detailed and critical account of the philosophy of Dugald Stewart, the outstanding representative of the later Scottish realism. And he points out how its appeal was BOOK REVIEWS 93 based on the Scottish moralistic conception of natural reason, and on the Scottish psychology of morals and religion. 9. Franco Restaino describes Thomas Brown as "the heretic of the Scottish School." He and Sir William Hamilton, writing in the early nineteenth century, outlived the enthusiasm of the enlightenment and represent two of the most erudite Scottish scholars looking back at their predecessors critically at a time when Kant, too, was writing critiques of his Scottish ancestors. 10. Giancarlo Carabelli presents another highly...