How the Scots Invented the Modern World

How the Scot’s Invented the Modern World, by Arthur Herman

I admit, when I started this book, I was arrogantly looking forward to see how the author was overstating the case of the Scots and their impact on the world. I must also admit that I was humbled to discover that the author was not far off the mark in so many areas. The areas that were touched by the Scots were far reaching and abounding. I have decided to dedicate a few web blogs to SOME of what I have unearthed in this fascinating book. The outcome is magnificent.


Religion sets the Stage
The Scottish Reformation, John Knox in his anti-Catholic, ardent Protestant views, greatly influenced the role religion and shaped a long term debate between it and political governance. He believed that political power was ordained by God but rested in the people. And, for it being the 1570’s, this was pretty revolutionary and fundamental in the establishment of early democratic principles.

This religious foundation along with the emphasis by leaders to promote education and schooling (primarily to allow for a literate populous to be able to read the bible) through the Act for Setting Schools (1969) paved the way for a remarkable an almost incomparable span of time in history marked with genius and revolutionary thinkers: The Scottish Enlightenment.

Foundation of Enlightenment
Two figures would shape this enlightenment and impact some of the greatest thinkers, philosophers, scientists and inventors in the modern world: Francis Hutcheson (studied at the University of Glasgow in 1711) and Lord Kames, born as Henry Home (studied at the University of Edinburgh).

Hutcheson was a Ulster Scot (Ulster is a city in Northern Ireland) and, “Knoxian” in decent of belief, raised by a Presbyterian clergyman, saw a new light or twist with religion. He purported that the creator was more benevolent that the hard-nosed deity Knox followed. This would be the foundation for Hutcheson and subsequent followers, to espouse a belief that man was happy when he served other men; in other words, good deeds. Man was born with an innate moral sense and the ultimate good in life was happiness. (Thomas Jefferson would subscribe this idea with his ideas of “the pursuit of happiness”.

Lord Kames, an Episcopalian, was a judge and also extremely influential in the early years of the enlightenment. His influence was apparent in the area of law, and as a judge, subscribed to the idea that laws were living things that were based on certain principles. This was a fundamental break from England and relied heavily on equity and fairness (like Roman Law) and less on precedent (like English law). Secondly, he would work to detach our understanding of human nature from the theological moorings of a Hutcheson. Kames would press on about the need for laws outside of religious doctrine; simply, laws protected property. Along the lines of a Hutcheson, it served the “common good” to have laws.

These two men would either befriend or help educate many other great thinkers: Adam Smith, John Millar, James Boswell and David Hume.

More to follow.