SCOTTISH PHILOSOPHY IN ITS NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT BY HENRY LAURIE, LL.D. PROFESSOR OF MENTAL AND MORAL PHILOSOPHY IN THE GLASGOW Publishers to the University 1902 81534 OCT 18 1904 BD PREFACE. THIS work was originally intended to form one of a series, projected by Professor Knight of St. Andrews, on Philosophy in its National Developments. Though the idea of such a series has been abandoned, little excuse will, I hope, be required for the appearance of this volume. The philosophy of Scotland deserves, indeed, to be treated as a national development. Every philosophy is an expression of the spirit of its time; and the mental life of Scotland is clearly mirrored in its intellectual and moral philosophy. The Scotland which gave birth to men so diverse as John Knox and Robert Burns produced also David Hume, and Thomas Reid, and Sir William Hamilton; and its philosophies of scepticism and common sense, though influenced by the thought of other countries, have drawn their special sustenance from the national history and character. There is room, if I mistake not, for a concise and connected statement, in the light of recent thought, of the course of philosophy in Scotland. A philosophy often discloses its features more distinctly as we are borne away from it; and its history may require from |