Moderate Liberalism and the Scottish Enlightenment
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A01=Constantine Christos Vassiliou
Author_Constantine Christos Vassiliou
Category=JPA
Category=JPB
Category=QDTS
eighteenth-century commerce
Enlightenment political thought
eq_bestseller
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
honour
John Law's System
liberalism
moderation
modern liberty
republicanism
Scottish Enlightenment
Scottish philosophy
Product details
- ISBN 9781399521208
- Dimensions: 156 x 234mm
- Publication Date: 31 May 2025
- Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Paperback
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Moderate Liberalism and the Scottish Enlightenment responds to a perennial problem in political theory: how to balance commercial considerations with the public good. It investigates this dilemma through the lenses of Enlightenment thinkers whose liberal theories responded to the hazards of commercial innovation during capitalism's nascent stages. Vassiliou argues that Montesquieu, David Hume, Adam Smith, and Adam Ferguson represent a moderate perspective in foundational liberal thought, which emphasizes the critical importance of honour. He compares how their liberal theories uniquely channel human beings' desire for honour to nourish a sense of interpersonal magnanimity within an inward-looking, liberal commercial world. In an age of polarized extremes, we have witnessed restive democracies flirting with populist, illiberal responses for managing the hazards of capitalist innovation. Montesquieu and his Scottish counterparts' foundational liberal theories offer us more viable, middle-ground prescriptions which are sensitive to the emotional constitution of a liberal society.
Constantine Christos Vassiliou is Civitas Research Fellow at the University of Texas at Austin. He is a political theorist and historian of ideas specialising in Enlightenment political thought. He is the co-editor and wrote the introductory chapter for Liberal Education and Citizenship in a Free Society (MU Press), a book that examines the relationship between liberal education and socially responsible citizenship in the United States. He is also a chapter contributor and co-editor (w/ Jeffrey Church and Alin Fumurescu) of The Spirit of Montesquieu’s Persian Letters (Lexington Press).
