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The International Association for Scottish Philosophy Bookstore

The International Association for Scottish Philosophy Bookstore offers selected books on Scottish philosophy at significantly reduced prices. The IASP’s aim is to ensure all the books on offer in its philosophy bookstore are of true intellectual quality, produced to a high standard, and represent real value for money. The range of books available is being built up gradually in accordance with these criteria.

Library of Scottish Philosophy
The IASP is pleased to announce that all the volumes in this internationally edited paperback series can now be purchased from the IASP Bookstore at the lowest available price – almost 50% less than the dollar price from Amazon.


Art and Enlightenment (Scottish Aesthetics in the 18th Century)
Edited by Jonathan Friday, University of Kent
Amazon price $29.50 IASP price $15

Art and Enlightenment (Library of Scottish Philosophy) During the intellectual and cultural flowering of Scotland in the 18th century few subjects attracted as much interest among men of letters as aesthetics - the study of art from the subjective perspective of human experience. All of the great philosophers of the age - Hutcheson, Hume, Smith and Reid - addressed themselves to aesthetic questions. Their inquiries revolved around a cluster of issues - the nature of taste, beauty and the sublime, how qualitative differences operate upon the mind through the faculty of taste, and how aesthetic sensibility can be improved through education. This volume brings together and provides contextual introductions to the most significant 18th century writing on the philosophy of art. From the pioneering study of beauty by Francis Hutcheson, through Hume's seminal essays on the standard of taste and tragedy, to the end of the tradition in Dugald Stewart, we are swept up in the debate about art and its value that fascinated the philosophers of enlightenment Scotland - and continues to do so to this day.

"A very well-chosen collection . . . the range of the volume provides something of a built-in syllabus." Maureen Harkin, Eighteenth-Century Scotland

"Attractive and inexpensive . . . a very important step toward addressing the problem [of the availability of reasonably-priced texts]." Steven A. Jauss, American Society of Aesthetics Newsletter

"Includes serious discussions on relations between art and morality very relevant now." Robert Calder, Appraisal


Politics and Society in Scottish Thought
Edited by Shinichi Nagao, Nagoya University Japan
Amazon price $29.50 IASP price $15

Politics and Society in Scottish Thought This volume illustrates the way political and social philosophers of 18th-century Scotland tried to answer the following question: ‘What is, and what ought to be, the relationship between the modern market and stable, desirable social order?’ The essays belong to the second half of the century and offer a snapshot of the achievements of Scots on political and social philosophy. The Scottish Enlightenment witnessed the birth of modern social sciences. Its moral philosophers attempted to harmonize a modern market economy with ethics, social order, stable polity and the moral progress of the human race. Their very diversity, and the thoroughness and sincerity of their endeavours, make the works of Scottish philosophers relevant to peoples’ lives on every part of the earth in an age of globalization.


Scottish Philosophy (Selected Writings 1690-1950)
Edited by Gordon Graham, Princeton Theological Seminary
Amazon price $29.50 IASP price $15

Scottish Philosophy selected writings The fame of thinkers such as David Hume, Adam Smith and Thomas Reid has led to philosophy being widely acknowledged as the jewel in the intellectual crown of the Scottish Enlightenment. But the Scottish tradition of philosophy extends much further than the 18th century. Its origins are to be found in the Middle Ages when Scotland's ancient universities were founded, and its central themes continued to be explored well into the twentieth century. This collection of readings, the first of its kind, has been chosen with a view to displaying the variety, richness and strength of the Scottish philosophical tradition. Beginning with the Philosophical Theses of Gershom Carmichael, the first person in Scotland to hold a University Chair expressly devoted to philosophy, the extracts offer readers an entry to the examination of topics as diverse as the nature of laughter, the possibility of miracles, and the foundations of psychology.

'Graham is to be credited with providing the first accessible and useful reader depicting the development of Scottish philosophy.' Craig Smith, Political Studies Review


Scottish Idealists (Selected Philosophical Writings)
Edited by David Boucher, Cardiff University, Wales
Amazon price $29.50 IASP price $15

Scottish Idealists The extent to which British Idealism was heavily influenced by Scots has been little noticed, yet not only were they at the forefront of introducing Hegel into Britain in the work of Ferrier, Carlyle, Hutcheson Stirling and Edward Caird, they were also distinctive in locating themselves in relation to the Scottish philosophical tradition they sought to extend. The Scottish Idealists, among them Edward Caird, David George Ritchie, Andrew Seth Pringle Pattison, William Mitchell, John Watson, and the Welshman Henry Jones who found his spiritual home in Glasgow, comprised a formidable force and dominated the philosophical professoriate in Britain, Australia and Canada from the late nineteenth century to the years leading up to the First World War. Its main centres were St. Andrews, Glasgow and Edinburgh in Scotland, Cardiff in Wales, and Oxford in England. This collection of readings, the first of its kind, has been chosen with a view to displaying the variety, richness and strength of the Scottish Idealist tradition, beginning with an essay from the famous Essays in Philosophical Criticism (1883), a book that set-out the future direction of enquiry for this group of thinkers who shared a 'common purpose or tendency'. Scottish Idealism was immensely spiritual in character and recognized no hard and fast distinctions between philosophy, religion, poetry and science. It was a formidable force in social and educational reform.

"You don't need to be an avowed Idealist to get the point of this volume." Robert Calder, Appraisal

"Offers a valuable selection from the Scottish Idealists." Andrew Vincent, Victorian Studies


Scottish Philosophical Theology
Edited by David Fergusson, University of Edinburgh
Amazon price $29.50 IASP price $15

Scottish Philosophical Theology This volume concentrates on the period from the beginning of the 18th century to the latter part of the 20th. It is impossible to depict a single school of philosophical theology in Scotland across three centuries, yet several strains have been identified that suggest some recurrent themes or intellectual habits. These include the following: the mutually beneficial cross-fertilisation of the disciplines of philosophy and theology; the tendency to eschew powerful philosophical systems that might threaten to imprison theological ideas; a stress on both the providential limitations and reliability of human reason; a suspicion of reductive theories of a materialist inclination; and a determination to inspect critically the proposals of theology and to place these in positive relation to other disciplines.

"I must acknowledge the clarity and accuracy and helpfulness of this volume. David Fergusson has presented texts and introductory material that fulfill the goals of the Library of Scottish Philosophy. This volume is a genuine service." Thomas D. Kennedy, Eighteenth Century Scottish Studies.


Adam Ferguson (Selected Philosophical Writings)
Edited by Eugene Heath, SUNY New Platz
Amazon price $29.50 IASP price $15

Adam Ferguson - Library of Scottish Philosophy A philosopher and historian, Adam Ferguson occupies a unique place within eighteenth-century Scottish thought. Distinguished by a moral and historical bent, his work is framed within a teleological outlook that upholds the importance of action and virtue.

"The volumes on Adam Ferguson and Dugald Stewart rise to the normal standard of the series and achieve the aims of the series with their insightful and rewarding selection of original texts and their accurate and informative introductions." Thomas D. Kennedy, Eighteenth Century Scottish Studies.








Adam Smith (Selected Philosophical Writings)
Edited by James R Otteson, Yeshiva University New York
Amazon price $29.50 IASP price $15

Adam Smith - Library of Scottish Philosophy Adam Smith (1723–90) was the author of two books: The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759) and An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776). TMS went through fully six revised editions during Smith's lifetime. Since the nineteenth century, however, Smith's fame has largely rested on his Wealth of Nations. This must be considered one of the most important works of the millennium, and while both the Theory of Moral Sentiments and the Wealth of Nations reveal Smith's impressively broad learning, he wrote and lectured on a number of other subjects as well. This anthology collects, for the first time in one volume, generous selections from each of Smith's books as well as substantial selections from his other work, on jurisprudence, the history and philosophy of science, belles lettres, and philosophy of language. It also includes two important letters from Hume.

"The selections are judicious and well-suited to introducing readers to the range of Smith's thought." Maureen Harkin, Eighteenth-Century Scotland

"The editor's introduction is very good . . . the selection itself is well balanced and particularly useful for undergraduates." David Sullivan, Political Studies Review

"Recommended for the abiding interest in Smith's metaphysics." Robert Calder, Appraisal


Dugald Stewart (Selected Philosophical Writings)
Edited by Emanuela Levi Mortera, University of Rome
Amazon price $29.50 IASP price $15

Dugald Stewart - Library of Scottish Philosophy Dugald Stewart was appointed assistant professor of mathematics in the University of Edinburgh in 1772, aged only 19. He became one of the most influential academics in the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century European ‘Republic of Letters.’ Both Stewart’s contemporaries and modern scholars have recognized the impact this influential figure had over many young minds. He was one of the leading figures of the Scottish Common Sense school, a name by which we are used to identifying the philosophical tradition headed by Thomas Reid. The selection given here departs in some ways from Stewart’s own division of the subject, and aims to reflect the logical priority of each discipline, a priority which Stewart himself seems to give in the internal development of his ‘system’.

"The volumes on Adam Ferguson and Dugald Stewart rise to the normal standard of the series and achieve the aims of the series with their insightful and rewarding selection of original texts and their accurate and informative introductions." Thomas D. Kennedy, Eighteenth Century Scottish Studies.


James Beattie (Selected Philosophical Writings)
Edited by James A Harris, University of St Andrews
Amazon price $29.50 IASP price $15

James Beattie - Library of Scottish Philosophy James Beattie (1735-1803) was appointed professor of moral philosophy and logic at Marischal College, Aberdeen, Scotland at the age of twenty-five. Though more fond of poetry than philosophy, he became part of the Scottish 'Common Sense' school of philosophy that included Thomas Reid and George Campbell. In 1770 Beattie published the work for which he is best known, An Essay on Truth, an abrasive attack on 'modern scepticism' in general, and on David Hume in particular, subsequently and despite Beattie's attack, Scotland's most famous philosopher. The Essay was a great success, earning its author an honorary degree from Oxford and an audience with George III. Samuel Johnson declared in 1772 that 'We all love Beattie'. Hume, on the other hand, described the Essay as 'a horrible large lie in octavo', and dismissed its author as a 'bigotted silly Fellow'. Although Beattie is no match for Hume as a philosopher, the success of the Essay suggests that, unlike Hume, Beattie voices the characteristic assumptions, and anxieties, of his age. The first part of this selection—the first ever made from Beattie's prose writings—includes several key chapters from the Essay on Truth, along with extracts from all of Beattie's other works on moral philosophy. The topics treated include memory, the existence of God, the nature of virtue, and slavery. The second part of the selection is devoted to Beattie's contributions to literary criticism and aesthetics. Beattie's studies of poetry, music, taste, and the sublime are vital to the understanding of the literary culture out of which developed the early Romanticism of Wordsworth and Coleridge.


John MacMurray (Selected Philosophical Writings)
Edited by Esther McIntosh, York St John’s University
Amazon price $29.50 IASP price $15

John MacMurray - Library of Scottish Philosophy The philosophy of John Macmurray is only now receiving the attention it deserves. It is in the contemporary climate of dissatisfaction with individualism that Macmurray's emphasis on the relations of persons has come to the fore. Moreover, Macmurray's recognition of the central importance of acknowledging human embodiment is being favourably received by a wide range of fields, which includes philosophers, theologians and psychologists. Macmurray's overriding concern is to present an adequate account of the person and of personal relationships. Nevertheless, he is an eclectic writer, whose work addresses concerns in education, science and art, which all stem from his understanding of human agency. In addition, this leads Macmurray into a discussion of the ethics of personal and political relations and a critique of otherworldly religion. Hence, Macmurray's philosophy is informed by fairly unconventional religious beliefs.

"A highly recommended selection." Robert Calder, Appraisal

"McIntosh has done an excellent job in putting together the selection; she has been able to showcase the work of a thinker who is not widely known outside of Britain in a way that demonstrates that he can still prove engaging for the contemporary reader." Philip Quadrio, Journal of Religious History

"An ideal introduction." Network Review



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