Tag Archives: Edinburgh

Dugald Stewart (1753-1828)

About Stewart

  • Professor of moral philosophy at Edinburgh, 1778-1810

Publications, Manuscripts and Other Resources

  • Outlines of Moral Philosophy for the Use of Students in the University of Edinburgh (Edinburgh: W. Creech, 1793) [Many editions into the nineteenth century]
  • Philosophical essays (Edinburgh : William Creech, 1810)
  • The philosophy of the active and moral powers of men  (Edinburgh : London printed for Adam Black, Edinburgh; and Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green, London, 1828)
  • Lectures and Letters of Dugald Stewart (1753-1828) [circa 21 mss volumes, some fragile – access may be restricted; includes notes from lectures on moral philosophy] [EUL, various shelfmarks. See details at Archives Hub entry: http://archiveshub.ac.uk/data/gb237-coll-505]
  • Lecture notes of Dugald Stewart by Robert Eden Scott on moral philosophy (1785-1786) [Lecture notes on moral philosophy taken at Edinburgh University] [AUL, MS 190-191]

NPG 1428; Dugald Stewart by John Henning
Dugald Stewart
by John Henning
pencil and chalk, 1811
NPG 1428
© National Portrait Gallery, London
Creative Commons Licence

*For references, see the Site Bibliography.

Charles Areskine of Alva (1680-1763)

About Areskine

  • Regius Professor of the Law of Nature and Nations (Edinburgh, 1707-1734)
  • Studied in the Netherlands and Italy (1707-11)
  • Admitted advocate 1711, Solicitor General (1725-37), Lord Advocate (1737-42), Lord of Session from 1744, Lord Justice Clerk (1748-63)
  • Private library contained key natural law texts [see Baston, ‘Library’*]

Teaching

  • Natural law included in teaching he did as a regent (tutor) at Edinburgh in the early eighteenth century [see his Theses philosophicae of 1704]
  • Inaugural lecture on ‘God as the Fountain of Law’
  • Advertised class ‘on the Laws of Nature and Nations’ starting 16 Nov 1711 in the Scots Courant [Cairns, ‘First’ 12*]
  • Probably used Grotius De jure belli ac pacis as his textbook [Cairns, ‘First’ 12*]

Publications, Manuscripts and other Resources

  • Lectures on philosophy and physics delivered at Edinburgh [probably by Charles Areskine] (1703) taken by Patrick Wilkie, later minister of Haddington (Advocates Library Adv. MS 20.7.1)
  • Theses philosophicæ, quas, auspice summo numine, generosi aliquot & ingenui juvenes Universitatis Jacobi Regis Edinburgenæ alumni, hac vice cum laurea emittendi, eruditorum examini subjicient, ad 12. diem Maii, H. Lq. S. Præside Carolo Areskine (Edinburgh 1704)

*For references, please see the Site Bibliography.

John Bruce (1744-1826)

About Bruce

    • Filled in as Chair of Moral Philosophy at Edinburgh to cover for Adam Ferguson in 1774 (ODNB*)
    • Professor of Logic from 1778 at Edinburgh
    • Tutor to Robert Dundas on his Grand Tour (ODNB*)
    • Founding member of the Speculative Society (ODNB*)

NPG D32244; John Bruce by Edward Mitchell, after Sir Henry Raeburn

John Bruce
by Edward Mitchell, after Sir Henry Raeburn
line engraving, (circa 1794)
NPG D32244
© National Portrait Gallery, London
Creative Commons Licence

Publications, Manuscripts, and other Resources

  • Elements of the science of ethics, on the principles of natural philosophy. By John Bruce, A. M. Professor of Philosophy in the University, and Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (London: printed for A. Strahan; and T. Cadell, in the Strand; and W. Creech, at Edinburgh, [1786]) ESTC T089429
  • Papers of Professor John Bruce [volumes of lectures on moral philosophy (1770) and a copy of First principles of philosophy, for the use of students (1781) [University of Edinburgh, Centre for Research Collections MSS MS Dc.3.44; Dc.10.3-5]

*For references, see the Site Bibliography.

 

John Pringle (1707-1782)

About Pringle

  • Professor of Moral Philosophy at Edinburgh, 1734-1745
  • Advertised a private class on Pufendorf (Haakonssen, ‘Natural’ 262*)
  • Career as a military physician (ODNB*)

NPG D7822; Sir John Pringle, Bt by William Henry Mote, after Sir Joshua Reynolds

 

 

 

Sir John Pringle, Bt
by William Henry Mote, after Sir Joshua Reynolds
stipple engraving, mid 19th century
NPG D7822
© National Portrait Gallery, London
Creative Commons Licence

 

*For references, please see the Site Bibliography.

George Abercromby of Tullibody (1705-1800)

About Abercromby

  • Regius Professor of the Law of Nature and Nations  at Edinburgh, 1735-1759

Teaching

  • Lectured on Grotius, De Jure Belli et Pacis [Grant, Story 315;* Cairns, ‘First’ 19-20*]
  • Private lectures on Grotius from the late 1730s to the early 1750s [Emerson, Academic 261*]

*For references, please see the Site Bibliography.

Allan Maconochie (bap. 1748, d. 1816)

About Maconochie

  • Student at Edinburgh in the 1760s where he took classes of Adam Ferguson (ODNB*)
  • Founding member, along with John Bruce, of the Speculative Society (ODNB*)
  • Admitted advocate 1770 (ODNB*)
  • Bought the Regius Chair from James Balfour for £1522:18:2  (Grant, Story 316*)
  • Regius Professor of the Law of Nature and Nations at Edinburgh, 1779-1796; advertised classes each year (ODNB*)
  • Resigned his professorship when he was called to the Bench as Lord Meadowbank in 1796 (ODNB*)

Teaching

  • General class concluded with ‘the general principles of municipal law, political oeconomy, and the law of nations’ (Arnot quoted in Cairns, ‘First’ 32*)
  • ‘It is evident that by now the nature of what was taught from the chair had changed from the rational type of natural law associated with the Dutch author and his immediate successors. Instead, Maconochie started with examination of human nature, a natural history of man’. (Cairns, ‘First’ 33-34*)
  • For his teaching see Cairns, ‘First’ 30-38*

Publications, Manuscripts and other Resources

  • Advertisement: Mr Maconochie advocate, professor of public law, proposes to open his class next winter. The intended course will treat the history and principles of universal and political law, according to the following arrangement. (Edinburgh, 1780) ESTC N61378

NPG D31949; Allan Maconochie, Lord Meadowbank by John Kay

Allan Maconochie, Lord Meadowbank
by John Kay
etching, 1799
NPG D31949
© National Portrait Gallery, London
Creative Commons Licence

*For references, see the Site Bibliography.

Adam Ferguson (1723-1816)

About Ferguson

  • Chair of Pneumatics and Moral Philosophy, Edinburgh
  • Tutor to the Earl of Bute’s family

Publications, Manuscripts, and other Resources

  • A Ferguson, Analysis of pneumatics and moral philosophy For the use of students in the College of Edinburgh (Edinburgh 1766)
  • A Ferguson, Institutes of Moral Philosophy for the Use of Students in the College of Edinburgh (Edinburgh 1769)

Links

Short Adam Ferguson biography at Northern Lights: The Scottish Enlightenment.

*For references, see the Site Bibliography.

Walter Anderson (1723-1800)

About Anderson

  • Graduated MA from the University of Edinburgh in 1742 (ODNB*)
  • Historian and Church of Scotland Minister (ODNB*)

Publications

  • W Anderson, Dissertatio philosophica inauguralis, de naturali hominum ad societatem propensione. Quam, favente numine, ut in artibus liberalibus & disciplinis philosophicis magister rite renuncietur, ex auctoritate reverendi admodum viri, D. Gulielmi Wishart, S.T.D. academiæ Edinburgenæ præfecti: nec non amplissimi senatus academici, & nobilissima faculratis arrium, decreto, eruditorum examini, in auditorio publico academiæ, ad 18 diem Martii, hora 10. Antemeridianâ, subjiciet Gualterus Anderson, A. & R. (Edinburgi: In Ædibus R. Flaminii & A. Alisoni, MDCCXLII. [1742]) [4],16p. ;  4⁰. (ESTC)

*For references, see the Site Bibliography.

James Balfour of Pilrig (1705-1795)

About Balfour

  • Regius Professor of the Law of Nature and Nations, 1764-1779
  • Professor of Moral Philosophy at Edinburgh, 1754-1764 but notably unsuccessful as a teacher (ODNB*); lectured on Pufendorf (Haakonssen, ‘Natural’ 262*)

Teaching

  • Not known if he lectured as Regius Professor (Grant*); but his class was advertised in The Edinburgh Advertiser: ‘UNIVERSITY of EDINBURGH…III. LAW. The Law Classes will be opened on Tuesday the 19th of November, as follows: [ …] The Law of Nature and Nations, Mr. Balfour.’ [Vol. XXX, no 1532 (1 Sept 1778) 151 col. 2]

Publications, Manuscripts and other Resources

  • J Balfour, A delineation of the nature and obligation of morality. With reflexions upon Mr Hume’s book, intitled, An inquiry concerning the principles of morals (Edinburgh [1753]; 2nd edn, Edinburgh, 1763)

*For references, see the Site Bibliography.

John Stevenson (1695-1775)

About Stevenson

  • Chair of logic and rhetoric at Edinburgh

Teaching

  • Used Heineccius, Elementa philosophiae rationalis et moralis as a textbook when Alexander Carlyle studied there in 1735 (Haakonnsen, Natural law 89*)
  • Innovations: first in Scotland to lecture on rhetoric in English, introduced study of belles-lettres and literary style (ODNB*)

*For references, see the Site Bibliography.