Hume and Smith studies after Forbes and Trevor-Roper
| Author | Max Skjönsberg |
| DOI | 10.1177/1474885118798928 |
| Published date | 01 October 2020 |
| Date | 01 October 2020 |
| Subject Matter | Review Articles |
Review Article EJPT
Hume and Smith studies
after Forbes and
Trevor-Roper
Max Skj€
onsberg
University of St Andrews, UK
Christopher J Berry, Essays on Hume, Smith and the Scottish Enlightenment, Edinburgh University
Press: Edinburgh, 2018; 472 pp. ISBN: 9781474415019. £85 (hbk).
Dennis C Rasmussen, The Infidel and the Professor: David Hume, Adam Smith, and the Friendship That
Shaped Modern Thought, Princeton University Press: Princeton, NJ, 2017; 336 pp. ISBN:
9780691177014. £24 (hbk).
Abstract
The ‘Scottish Enlightenment’ has fostered a steadily growing academic industry since Duncan
Forbes and Hugh Trevor-Roper put the subject on the map in the 1960s. David Hume and
Adam Smith have from the start been widely considered as its leading thinkers, and their
thoughts on politics have attracted an increasing amount of attention in recent years. Two
new publications invite readers to reflect on the state of the art in Scottish Enlightenment
studies in general, and especially Hume and Smith scholarship. ChristopherBerry’s Essays on
Hume, Smith and the Scottish Enlightenment collects many of Berry’s pathbreaking essaysfrom a
career spanning over 40 years. The Infidel and the Professor by Dennis Rasmussen is astonish-
ingly the first book-length treatment of the private and philosophical friendship between
Hume and Smith. Both publications reflect how much Scottish Enlightenment studies have
expanded since the 1960s, and the sustained interest in Hume and Smith to boot. At the same
time, they also raise questions about the future of th e field and what remains to be done.
Keywords
Adam Smith, commercial society, conservatism, David Hume, liberalism, scepticism,
Scottish Enlightenment
Corresponding author:
Max Skj€
onsberg, University of St Andrews, St Katharine’s Lodge, The Scores, St Andrews,
KY16 9BA, UK.
Email: mss5@st-andrews.ac.uk
European Journal of Political Theory
2020, Vol. 19(4) 623–635
!The Author(s) 2018
Article reuse guidelines:
sagepub.com/journals-permissions
DOI: 10.1177/1474885118798928
journals.sagepub.com/home/ept
To continue reading
Request your trial