Scotch Metaphysics

Focusing on the debates about perception among Hume, Reid, Hamilton, Thomas Brown, Dugald Stewart and J.F. Ferrier, the author show that it is a mistake to think Scots philosophy petered out after Reid. On the contrary, Davie claims that the early work of Ferrier gave it fresh impetus, and that Ferrier's writings are deserving of closer attention.

'It is of historical interest - a significant step in the historiography of the Scottish Enlightenment.' - Journal of Scottish Philosophy, 'There emerges a clear and engaging picture of not merely a continuing philoshopical enterprise, but an intellectual community and a philosophical tradition.'-Gordon Graham, Eighteenth Century Scotland'Davie's book provides a welcome corrective to the almost obsessive confinement of Scottish philosophy to the period of the Enlightenment.' -Gordon Graham, Eighteenth Century Scotland'It is of historical interest - a significant step in the historiography of the Scottish Enlightenment.' - Journal of Scottish Philosophy

George Davie D.Litt, FRSE, D.h.c. is the author of The Democratic Intellect: Scotland and her Universities in the Nineteenth Century, The Crisis of the Democratic Intellect and two volumes of essays on the Scottish Enlightenment. He is Emeritus Reader in Philosophy at the University of Edinburgh and recipient of the Andrew Fletcher of Saltoun Award for services to Scotland.