Essays on Hume, Smith and the Scottish Enlightenment

Chris Berry’s hybrid conceptual inquiries into the political theory of the Scottish Enlightenment are utterly distinctive. Though skeptical of a distinctive ‘Berry-view’, nobody else writes about these topics as he has done for a generation, and reading these essays newly arranged together gives a singularly enlightening sense of both his intellectual evolution and the transformation of his field of study since the 1960s. * Duncan Kelly, University of Cambridge *
Christopher Berry's Essays on Hume, Smith, and the Scottish Enlightenment is more than its title promises. Yes, it is a collection of essays on David Hume, Adam Smith, and the Scottish Enlightenment, but it is also a remarkably coherent picture of both an intellectual period and of a professor of political theory, as Christopher Berry likes to think of himself, and the intellectual context in which he wrote. … One of the many remarkable features of the volume is that there is such a continuity and a smooth transition from one chapter to another that it took me a while to realize that the essays are not rewritten or adapted to this volume. … This volume is indeed an example of how the whole is more than the sum of its parts, since, as a whole, it does offer a bigger picture, a broader perspective on the big ideas of the Scottish Enlightenment, and even if these ideas are present in each individual essay, they are magnified each time by their proximity to each other, allowing them to blossom together with greater intensity and vivacity. -- Maria Pia Paganelli, Trinity University * Journal of Scottish Philosophy *
Christopher Berry’s Essays on Hume, Smith and the Scottish Enlightenment delivers a ‘big idea’ on what Scottish enlightenment thinkers collectively sought to achieve. This collection of essays will certainly interest specialists in the field and is highly recommended as a key teaching source for postgraduate seminars on the Scottish enlightenment. -- C. B. Bow * Scottish Historical Review *
Christopher Berry’s Essays on Hume, Smith and the Scottish Enlightenment delivers a ‘big idea’ on what Scottish enlightenment thinkers collectively sought to achieve. This collection of essays will certainly interest specialists in the field and is highly recommended as a key teaching source for postgraduate seminars on the Scottish enlightenment. -- C. B. Bow, University of Aberdeen * Scottish Historical Review *
With unfailing clarity, Berry helps to illuminate and untangle many issues that have often been obscured, rather than clarified, by existing scholarly treatments. -- Paul Sagar * The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought *
For over 40 years, Christopher J. Berry has been one of the most insightful commentators on the political and moral thought of the Scottish Enlightenment. It is thus, as David Hume would put it, both useful and agreeable to have many of Berry’s previously published papers collected here, alongside several lectures and earlier working papers appearing in print for the first time … With unfailing clarity, Berry helps to illuminate and untangle many issues that have often been obscured, rather than clarified, by existing scholarly treatments. -- Paul Sagar, King’s College London * The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought *