PRACTICAL ETHICS: BEING LECTURES AND PAPERS ON NATURAL RELIGION, SELF-GOVERNMENT, NATURAL JURISPRUDENCE, AND THE LAW OF NATIONS.

REID, Thomas, Knud Haakonssen ( Ed.).

ISBN 10: 0691073503 / ISBN 13: 9780691073507

Published by Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1990

About this Item

4to. pp xiv, 556. Black and white illustrated dust jacket. Original publisher's green cloth with gilt lettering at spine. ISBN: 0691073503 Fine in fine dust jacket.

Seller Inventory # C33172

Bibliographic Details

• Title: PRACTICAL ETHICS: BEING LECTURES AND PAPERS ON NATURAL RELIGION, SELF-GOVERNMENT, NATURAL JURISPRUDENCE, AND THE LAW OF NATIONS.
• Publisher: Princeton University Press, Princeton
• Publication Date: 1990
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0691073503
• ISBN 13: 9780691073507
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Dust Jacket Condition: Dust Jacket Included

About this title

Synopsis

As the originator of the Scottish school of "common sense" philosophy and the foremost contemporary critic of David Hume's moral skepticism, Thomas Reid (1710-1796) played a hitherto unknown role in applying the tradition of natural law to morality and politics. When Reid succeeded Adam Smith as professor of moral philosophy in Glasgow in 1764, he taught a course covering pneumatology (theory of mind), practical ethics, and politics. In presenting for the first time the philosopher's manuscript lectures and papers on practical ethics, Knud Haakonssen shows how these writings not only add depth to Reid's criticism of Hume but also clarify his own social, moral, and political thought. As a whole, Reid's Practical Ethics constitutes a most significant addition of source material for the study of the Scottish Enlightenment. The papers assembled here demonstrate the extent to which the moral philosophy of the Enlightenment was influenced by natural jurisprudence. At the same time they reveal Reid's involvement with republican, utopian, and radical themes and elucidate the relations between religion and politics in the Enlightenment. Haakonssen's introduction is the first substantial systematic treatment of Reid's moral-political thought, connecting it with his general philosophy and setting it in the context of his life and time.

About the Author

Knud Haakonssen is Professor of Intellectual History and Director of the Sussex Centre for Intellectual History, University of Sussex, and the General Editor of the Edinburgh Edition of Thomas Reid.