The Science of Man and Society in the Scottish Enlightenment

Abstract

The paper explores the ways, and on what assumptions, the thinkers of the Scottish Enlightenment saw themselves as engaging in social science. This engagement included a critique of individualistic explanations of social institutions, an identification of suitably probabilistic social causation in manners and customs, and practising the comparative method. The enterprise was premised on the assumption of the constancy of human nature but it was not positivistic. The Scots' social science was also normative, inspired by a Baconian commitment to improvement.