By Gordon Graham
The tradition of Scottish philosophy had always had twin foci – the working of the human mind, and the social life of human beings.
Some philosophical traditions hold these two areas of inquiry largely apart – Rationalism for example. Others collapse on into the other – Idealism’s mental construction of reality and Marxism’s social construction of mind are clear instances. The philosophers of Scottish Enlightenment laid contrasting emphases on one or other, but all saw them as distinct yet interconnected. The study of perception and the study of politics were both aspects of the study of human nature.
This month’s themed collection from Journal of Scottish Philosophy demonstrates some of the demands that such a balancing act requires, the advantages that it promises, and the recurrent difficulties that underlie it.
>>Read the article collection (free in July-August 2014)
Gordon Graham is the Editor of Journal of Scottish Philosophy and the Henry Luce III Professor of Philosophy and the Arts at Princeton Theological Seminary in the USA. Details of his research interests, writing and publications are available on his website: http://www.gordon-graham.net/
