An Outline of the History of Libertarian Thought, Part III: The Scottish Enlightenment

VII. The Scottish Enlightenment

Recommended Reading

Jane Randall, The Origins of the Scottish Enlightenment 1707-1776 (London: Macmillan, 1978).

Andrew Skinner, “Adam Smith: An Economic Interpretation of History,” in A.S. Skinner and T. Wilson eds., Essays on Adam Smith (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1975).

Peter Stein, “Adam Smith’s Theory of Law and Society,” Classical Influences on Western Thought, 1650-1870 (Cambridge University Press, 1979), pp. 263-73.

Donald Winch, Adam Smith’s Politics: An Essay in Historiographic Revision (Cambridge University Press, 1979).

T. D. Campbell, “Adam Smith and Natural Liberty,” Political Studies, 1977, XXV, 4, pp. 523-34.

Jacob Viner, “Adam Smith and Laissez-Faire,” in The Long View and the Short: Studies in Economic Theory and Policy (New York: The Free Press: 1958), pp. 213-45.

The Scottish Enlightenment of the eighteenth century is one of the more remarkable periods in the development of liberal ideas. It was here that political economy as a discipline came of age with the magnificent work of Adam Smith: An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (Indianapolis: Liberty Classics, 1981), ed. R. H. Campbell and A. S. Skinner. The Scottish Enlightenment also made incalculably important contributions to the study of history, sociology, legal theory, moral philosophy, and the science of politics. A small measure of its value can be seen from the quite palpable influence it has had on Friedrich Hayek, one of the leading classical liberal writers of the twentieth century. One need only look at Hayek’s three volume treatise Law, Legislation and Liberty: A New Statement Of the Liberal Principles of Justice and Political Economy (University of Chicago Press, 1973-1979) to get some idea of the Scottish influence on his social and legal philosophy (from David Hume) and his idea of spontaneous order (from Adam Ferguson).

A good place to begin sorting through the huge literature dealing with the Scottish Enlightenment is the short essay by Nicholas Phillipson, “The Scottish Enlightenment,” The Enlightenment in National Context (Cambridge University Press, 1981), ed. Roy Porter and Mikulas Teich, pp. 19-41, and the collection of extracts edited by Jane Randall, The Origins of the Scottish Enlightenment 1707-1776 (London: Macmillan, 1978). For a more detailed treatment, concentrating on the economic and legal aspects of the Scottish Enlightenment, see the collection of essays Wealth and Virtue: The Shaping of Political Economy in the Scottish Enlightenment (Cambridge University Press, 1983), ed. Istvan Hont and Michael Ignatieff. For the best collection of essays about Adam Smith and his contribution to the Scottish Enlightenment, see Adam Smith: Critical Assessments (London: Croom Helm, 1984), 4 vols., ed. John Cunningham Wood.

Hutcheson

In many ways the Scottish Enlightenment began with the moral philosophy of Francis Hutcheson who interpreted the seventeenth century natural jurisprudence tradition of Grotius and Pufendorf for a new generation of thinkers. Hutcheson’s A System of Moral Philosophy (1755) contains many social, legal, and economic insights which were developed in much greater depth later in the century by writers such as Adam Ferguson, Lord Kames, John Millar, William Robertson, and Adam Smith. The other major pioneer of the Scottish Enlightenment was David Hume whose contributions to social philosophy and history were immense. On Hutcheson, see W. L. Taylor, Francis Hutcheson and David Hume as Predecessors of Adam Smith (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1965) and Caroline Robbins, “When is it That Colonies May Turn Independent: An Analysis of the Environment and Politics of Francis Hutcheson 1669-1746,” William and Mary Quarterly, 1954, 11, pp. 214-51. On Hume, see Duncan Forbes, “Politics and History in David Hume,” Historical Journal, 1963, 6; Duncan Forbes, Hume’s Philosophical Politics (Cambridge University Press, 1975); Friedrich Hayek, “The Legal and Political Philosophy of David Hume,” in Studies in Philosophy, Politics and Economics (University of Chicago Press, 1969); Eugene Rotwein, David Hume: Writings on Economics (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1970).

“each (man) has a natural right to exert his powers, according to his own judgment and inclination, for these purposes, in all such industry, labour or amusements, as are not hurtful to others in their persons or goods. . . . This right we call natural liberty.”

“Mankind have generally been a great deal too tame and tractable; and hence so many wretched forms of power have always enslaved nine-tenths of the nations of the world, where they have the fullest rights to make all efforts for a change.”

Francis Hutcheson

Historical & Sociological Contributions

Although the Scottish Enlightenment is probably best remembered for its contribution to economic theory, it also made fundamental contributions to history and sociology. For the first time, the categories of economic analysis were applied in a systematic manner to the study of history and social institutions to create what was known as “Theoretical or Conjectural History.” For example, it was observed that the ancient world and the recently discovered aboriginal societies of North America had very different economic and social structures from the more commercial societies of eigthteenth century Europe. Lord Kames in his Historical Law Tracts (1758), Adam Smith in his “Letter to the Authors of the Edinburgh Review” (1755), Adam Ferguson in Essay on the History of Civil Society (1767), and William Robertson in History of America (1777) developed a sophisticated theory of historical change based upon the structure of property rights and the particular means of production in each of the different societies to explain the varying degress of economic progress. On the history of what is known as the “four stages theory” of economic development, see Ronald L. Meek, Social Science and the Ignoble Savage (Cambridge University Press, 1976).

Class Analysis

Related to the development of their historical understanding was the creation of a theory of class. Adam Ferguson and John Millar are the most interesting precursors of modern sociology in this period. In Ferguson’s An Essay on the History of Civil Society (Edinburgh University Press, 1965) ed. Duncan Forbes, and Millar’s The Origin of the Distinction of Ranks (reprinted in Lehmann, John Millar of Glasgow, cited below, pp. 165–322) and An Historical View of the English Government (London, 1803), ed. J. Craig and J. Mylne the idea that political privilege, based upon one’s social or economic position, is a determining factor in explaining the history and development of political power. Marxists like Ronald Meek have seized upon this aspect of Scottish thought as an early presentiment of the materialist theory of history. However, a closer examination of Ferguson and Millar reveals their liberal inclinations and the importance they placed on non-economic (i.e. political) forms of privilege. On the class analysis and general sociological theory of the Scottish Enlightenment, see David Kettler, The Social and Political Thought of Adam Ferguson (Ohio State University Press, 1965); William C. Lehmann, John Millar of Glasgow, 1735–1801, his Life and Thought, and his Contribution to Sociological Analysis (Cambridge University Press, 1960); William C. Lehmann, Adam Ferguson and the Beginnings of Modern Sociology (Columbia University Press, 1930); William C. Lehmann, “John Millar, Historical Sociologist: Some Remarkable Anticipations of Modern Sociology,” British Journal of Sociology 3, 1952, pp. 30–46; A. Swingewood, “Origins of Sociology: The Case of the Scottish Enlightenment,” British Journal of Sociology, 1970, 21, pp. 164–80; D. A. Reisman, Adam Smith’s Sociological Economics (New York: Barnes and Noble, 1976); Duncan Forbes, “Scientific Whiggism: Adam Smith and John Millar,” Cambridge Journal 7, 1954, pp. 643–70; Andrew Skinner, “Economics and History: The Scottish Enlightenment,” Scottish Journal of Political Economy 12, 1965, pp. 1–22; Andrew Skinner, “Adam Smith: An Economic Interpretation of History,” in A. S. Skinner and T. Wilson eds., Essays on Adam Smith (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1975); Ronald L. Meek, “The Scottish Contribution to Marxist Sociology,” Democracy and the Labour Movement (London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1954), ed. J. Saville; Andrew Skinner, “A Scottish Contribution to Marxist Sociology?” in Classical and Marxian Political Economy: Essays in Honour of Ronald L. Meek (London: Macmillian, 1982), ed. Ian Bradley and Michael Howard, pp. 79,114; Albert Saloman, “Adam Smith as Sociologist,” in Social Research 12, 1945, 22–42; and Albion W. Small, Adam Smith and Modern Sociology (University of Chicago Press, 1907).

“It is expected that the prerogatives of the monarch, and of the ancient nobility will be gradually undermined, that the privileges of the people will be extended in the same proportion and that power, the usual attendant of wealth, will be in some measure diffused over all the members of the community.”

John Millar “Men who have tasted of freedom, and who have felt their personal rights, are not easily taught to bear with encroachments on either, and cannot, without some preparation, come to submit to oppression.” Adam Ferguson

Legal Theory

The linchpin of the “system of natural liberty” advocated by Adam Smith and the other representatives of the Scottish Enlightenment was a legal system which represented individual liberty and property, dispensed fair and inexpensive justice, and allowed for the expansion of individual opportunity by permitting the expansion of commerce and industry. The basic sources on Scottish legal theory are Adam Smith’s Theory of Moral Sentiments, (Indianapolis: Liberty Classics, 1976), ed. D. D. Raphael and A. L. Macfie and Lectures on Jurisprudence (Indianapolis: Liberty Classics, 1982), ed., R. L. Meek, D. D. Raphael and P. G. Stein. For a discussion of Scottish jurisprudence, see the following works by Peter Stein, “Adam Smith’s Theory of Law and Society,” Classical Influences on Western Thought, 1650–1870 (Cambridge University Press, 1979), pp. 263–73; “Scottish Philosophical History of Law,” in Legal Evolution: The Story of an Idea (Cambridge University Press, 1980), pp. 23–50; “Legal Thought in Eighteenth Century Scotland,” Juridical Review 1, 1957, pp. 1–20; “The General Notions of Contract and Property in Eighteenth Century Scotland,” Juridical Review 8, 1963, pp. 1–13; “Law and Society in Eighteenth Century Thought,” in N. T. Phillipson and R. Mitchison eds., Scotland in the Age of Improvement (Edinburgh, 1970). Other useful pieces on Scottish legal theory include N. McCormick, “Adam Smith on Law,” Valparaiso University Law Review, 1980; the essays by James Moore and Michael Silverthorne, David Lieberman, and J. G. A. Pocock in Wealth and Virtue, cited above; T. D. Campbell, “Adam Smith and Natural Liberty,” Political Studies XXV, 4, 1977, pp. 523–34; and Knud Haakonssen, The Science of a Legislator: The Natural Jurisprudence of David Hume and Adam Smith (Cambridge University Press, 1981).

“As it is by treaty, by barter, and by purchase, that we obtain from one another the greater part of those mutual good offices which we stand in need of, so it is this same trucking disposition which originally gives occasion to the division of labour.”

“The real recompense of labour, the real quantity of the necessaries and conveniences of life which it can procure to the labourer, has, during the course of the present century, increased perhaps in a still greater proportion than its money price.”

Adam Smith

Political Economy

But whenever the contributions of the Scottish Enlightenment to liberal social theory may be, the development of the science of political economy is perhaps the most important and Adam Smith’s An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (Indianapolis: Liberty Classics, 1981), 2 vols., ed. R. H. Campbell and A. S. Skinner, is justifiably the most famous example of it. Wealth of Nations (1776) combines a formidable historical knowledge of both ancient and contemporary economic history and statistics with a theory of how an advanced commercial society operated. Smith was not just content with describing the effects of the expansion of commercial and industrial relations which were then transforming European society. He also was engaged in a fierce struggle to end the inefficient and unjust mercantilist restrictions which were hampering trade, retarding economic growth and prosperity, and threatening to cause a major break with the North American colonies. On Adam Smith’s political involvement in the revolutions of his time, see E. A. Benians, “Adam Smith’s Project of an Empire,” Cambridge Historical Journal 1, 1925, pp. 249–83; C. R. Fay, “Adam Smith, America, and the Doctrinal Defeat of the Mercantile System,” Quarterly Journal of Economics 48, 1934, pp. 304–16; J. A. La Nauze, “The Substance of Adam Smith’s Attack on Mercantilism,” Economic Record, pp. 90–93, 1937; R. Koebner, “Adam Smith and the Industrial Revolution,” The Economic History Review II, 3, 1959, pp. 381–91; and Donald Winch, Adam Smith’s Politics: An Essay in Historiographic Revision (Cambridge University Press, 1979).

Adam Smith & Laissez Faire

Although Adam Smith was no believer in laissez-faire (reserving rather extensive public good functions for the state) the broad analytical framework he worked out was an improvement on what had gone before and laid the basis for more radical laissez-faire theorists, such as the Frenchman Jean-Baptiste Say, in the future. On the debate about whether Smith believed in laissez-faire, see the works cited in the previous paragraph as well as the following: Lionel Robbins, The Theory of Economic Policy in English Classical Political Economy (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1952); Jacob Viner, “Adam Smith and Laissez-Faire,” in The Long View and the Short: Studies in Economic Theory and Policy (New York: The Free Press: 1958), pp. 213–45; Warren J. Samuels, The Classical Theory of Economic Policy (Cleveland: World, 1966); Albert Schatz, L’individualisme économique et sociale (Paris: Armand Colin, 1907); Jacob Viner, “The Intellectual History of Laissez-Faire,” Journal of Law and Economics 3, 1960, pp. 45–69; and Andrew S. Skinner, “The Functions of Government,” in A System of Social Science: Papers Relating to Adam Smith (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1979). More generally on Adam Smith’s economic and political theories, see E. G. West, “Adam Smith’s Economics of Politics,” History of Political Economy 8, 4, 1976, pp. 515–39; Ronald Hamowy, “Adam Smith, Adam Ferguson, and the Division of Labour,” Economica 35, 1968, pp. 249–59; and Samuel Hollander, The Economics of Adam Smith (University of Toronto Press, 1973).

Adam Smith’s economic theories were to have a profound effect on both liberal thought and government policy in the nineteenth century, particularly in France and England. The next part of our “Outline” will deal with Jean-Baptiste Say and the liberal movement which developed in France.

“Such neglect of the history of the law, is the more strange, that in place of a dry, intricate and crabbed science, law treated historically becomes an entertaining study: entertaining not only to those whose profession it is, but to every person who hath any thirst for knowledge.”

Lord Kames