
The Scotsmen Who Invented Modernity - pepys
http://nationalinterest.org/feature/the-scotsmen-who-invented-modernity-21940?page=show
======
roceasta
Dying of cancer, David Hume wrote some notes about his life. The final
paragraph is rather moving because he speaks of himself in the past tense:

 _> To conclude historically with my own character. I am, or rather was (for
that is the style I must now use in speaking of myself, which emboldens me the
more to speak my sentiments); I was, I say, a man of mild disposition, of
command of temper, of an open, social, and cheerful humour, capable of
attachment, but little susceptible of enmity, and of great moderation in all
my passions. Even my love of literary fame, my ruling passion, never soured my
temper, notwithstanding my frequent disappointments. My company was not
unacceptable to the young and careless, as well as to the studious and
literary; and as I took a particular pleasure in the company of modest women,
I had no reason to be displeased with the reception I met with from them. In a
word, though most men, any wise eminent, have found reason to complain of
calumny, I never was touched, or even attacked by her baleful tooth: and
though I wantonly exposed myself to the rage of both civil and religious
factions, they seemed to be disarmed in my behalf of their wonted fury. My
friends never had occasion to vindicate any one circumstance of my character
and conduct: Not but that the zealots, we may well suppose, would have been
glad to invent and propagate any story to my disadvantage, but they could
never find any which they thought would wear the face of probability. I cannot
say there is no vanity in making this funeral oration of myself, but I hope it
is not a misplaced one; and this is a matter of fact which is easily cleared
and ascertained._

[https://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Texts/humelife.html](https://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Texts/humelife.html)

------
eigenschwarz
David Hume, Adam Smith, James Clerk Maxwell, Andrew Carnegie, Alexander Graham
Bell, James Watt, Alexander Fleming, Lord Kelvin - the list goes on... For
such a tiny nation Scotland has truly had a remarkable influence on
“modernity”.

~~~
randcraw
Probably they can thank John Knox's insistence on teaching everyone in
Scotland to read for much of the country's competitive advantage in all those
things that benefit from literacy.

------
rpeden
Only tangentially related, but David Hume and Benjamin Franklin were close
friends. Franklin has always stuck me as a very modern thinker for his time,
too. I'd long admired both Hume and Franklin, but didn't realize they were
close friends until I dug in and read a Franklin biography a few years back.

Franklin actually stayed with Hume in Edinburgh for a while. I'm sure the
Philadeplhia to London to Edinburgh trek was a tad more involved in the 1700s
than it is today. :)

~~~
markdog12
It wasn't "An American Life" was it?

[https://www.amazon.ca/Benjamin-Franklin-American-Walter-
Isaa...](https://www.amazon.ca/Benjamin-Franklin-American-Walter-
Isaacson/dp/074325807X)

Great book and what an amazing human being! I remember it covered some of his
time in England, but don't recall him staying with Hume. I read it quite a
while ago though...

~~~
rpeden
I started with that one - I liked Isaacson's writing when I read his Steve
Jobs biography, so I decided to read his Franklin bio as well. I very much
enjoyed it. Afterward, I read this one:

[https://www.amazon.com/First-American-Times-Benjamin-
Frankli...](https://www.amazon.com/First-American-Times-Benjamin-
Franklin/dp/0385495404)

I think this one is probably where I read about his time with Hume. I don't
find H.W. Brands' writing to be quite as smooth to read as Isaacson's, but I
remember him covering parts of Franklin's life in greater detail. His bio of
Ulysses Grant was a great read, too:

[https://www.amazon.com/Man-Who-Saved-Union-
Ulysses/dp/030747...](https://www.amazon.com/Man-Who-Saved-Union-
Ulysses/dp/0307475158)

~~~
markdog12
Have you ever read Ron Chernow bios? I've read Titan (Rockefeller):

[https://www.amazon.ca/Titan-Life-John-Rockefeller-
Sr/dp/1400...](https://www.amazon.ca/Titan-Life-John-Rockefeller-
Sr/dp/1400077303/)

and Alexander Hamilton:

[https://www.amazon.ca/Alexander-Hamilton-Ron-
Chernow/dp/0143...](https://www.amazon.ca/Alexander-Hamilton-Ron-
Chernow/dp/0143034758/)

Both incredible.

I admit I've never been terribly interested in Grant, maybe I should give him
a look. Tough when there's an infinite abundance of great literature. We're
truly spoiled.

~~~
rpeden
I haven't, but I'll definitely check those out. Thanks for the suggestions!

------
badcede
“To write against him, is, you may depend upon it, the very thing he wishes
you to do.”

Don't feed the trolls.

~~~
emmelaich
And just further on, this brilliant quote from Adam Smith

> _" After Rousseau departed England for Calais, Smith asked, “What has become
> of Rousseau? Has he gone abroad, because he cannot continue to get himself
> sufficiently persecuted in Great Britain?”_

There is nothing new under the sun.

------
CryptoPunk
It should be noted that Smith's warning about the potential for merchants to
collude is not an endorsement of government intervention to prevent such
collusion. The collusion warning is followed by:

>It is impossible indeed to prevent such meetings, by any law which either
could be executed, or would be consistent with liberty and justice. But though
the law cannot hinder people of the same trade from sometimes assembling
together, it ought to do nothing to facilitate such assemblies; much less to
render them necessary. A regulation which obliges all those of the same trade
in a particular town to enter their names and places of abode in a public
register, facilitates such assemblies. . . . A regulation which enables those
of the same trade to tax themselves in order to provide for their poor, their
sick, their widows, and orphans, by giving them a common interest to manage,
renders such assemblies necessary. An incorporation not only renders them
necessary, but makes the act of the majority binding upon the whole.

Which again shows Smith viewed the respect for freedom as a moral imperative.

~~~
etplayer
When freedom is defined as freedom within the capitalist mode of production
for bourgeois interests to collude, I suppose you're right. He also said that
the state, as it is instituted for the protection of property, is instituted
as a device used in benefit of the rich for the detriment of the poor.

I find Marx's critique of classical political economy to be more valuable, and
the thinking it inspired. The quality of the freedom offered by the social
anarchists (Proudhon, Bakunin, Kropotkin and Bookchin) I also think is much
higher than Smith's.

~~~
KekDemaga
>The quality of the freedom offered by the social anarchists (Proudhon,
Bakunin, Kropotkin and Bookchin) I also think is much higher than Smith's.

In practice or on paper?

~~~
etplayer
Both, I would argue.

The application of their ideas in Catalonia was respected by Orwell when he
stayed there (he even wrote a book about it, Homage to Catalonia). The current
situation in Syria has spawned a man inspired by Bookchin's anarchism to start
Rojava, which is a secular and multi-ethnic society in the region, fighting
ISIS and against the Turkish forces which want to eliminate them.

You can read about anarchists during the Russian revolution, Kronstadt,
Makhno, and the Italian factory councils here, whuch is a great read:
[http://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/daniel-guerin-
anarchi...](http://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/daniel-guerin-anarchism-
from-theory-to-practice)

~~~
KekDemaga
Not places I'd want to live personally, how are you enjoying Syria?

~~~
etplayer
That's not an argument against anarchism. I also wouldn't want to live in many
other places, nor would I want to live there. The point is that it _is_ a
place Syrians want to live, as in, it is significantly better than theocratic
regimes in the region, and much fairer to all.

I really don't know how you can consider what you said to be against
anarchism.

~~~
KekDemaga
My point is I typically judge governments by their ability to create a place
where people would like to live and I have to say Syria is pretty low on most
peoples lists.

~~~
etplayer
But Syria wouldn't be somewhere you want to live regardless of what
organisation the anarchists st up there. That's because of the climate and the
war in the region, both of which are out of the control of Rojava.

It just doesn't make sense to judge by that metric. What more do you expect
Rojava or any government of any ideology in the region to do, other than to
fight ISIS?

------
danielam
If anyone is interested in the problems inherent in Hume's arguments, I
recommend Feser's series of blog posts on the subject:

[http://edwardfeser.blogspot.com/search?q=hume](http://edwardfeser.blogspot.com/search?q=hume)

------
drfuchs
But no true Scotsman would invent modernity.

~~~
falsedan
that's pure braw pal

