-
When the Wind Blows: Planning for Nuclear War in the 1980s
Read more: When the Wind Blows: Planning for Nuclear War in the 1980sJim Gledhill on the organisation of civil defence in Scotland amidst Cold War tensions.
Yogic Yeats and Jung: Early European Receptions of Asian Meditation Manuals
by Chris Murray Should Europeans meditate? Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961) said not, but William Butler Yeats (1865-1939) disagreed. To argue his opinion, each adopted Goethe’s character Faust as a paradigm for the non-Asian psyche. For much of his life, Yeats…
Spinoza and democracy in peril
By Dan Taylor In October 2020, in the days leading up to the US Presidential Election, over 130 leading historians of fascism signed an open letter. They warned that democracy today is deeply imperilled. It is either ‘withering or in…
Enlightenment in a Smart City: Edinburgh’s Civic Development, 1660-1750
By Murray Pittock My book is a study of the Enlightenment in Edinburgh like no other. Using data and models provided by urban innovation and Smart City theory, it pinpoints the distinctive features that made Enlightenment in the Scottish capital possible.…
Primary and Secondary Qualities: More Trouble than You’d Think!
Size and shape versus sound and colour: discover how primary and secondary qualities have perplexed philosophers for thousands of years, and how Thomas Reid offers us a way forward.
Descartes in Scotland and pre-Enlightenment Scottish philosophy
By Giovanni Gellera Until recently, the question ‘What was philosophy like in Scotland before the Enlightenment?’ met a standard answer reminiscent of the famous Augustinian warning to those who dared to ask what was there before the beginning of time:…
Scottish Philosophy: Neglect and Renewal
By Gordon Graham Philosophy played a key role in the curriculum of the Scottish universities from their foundation in the 15th century to the closing decade of the 19th century. By the middle of the 20th century, however, Hume’s great…