Apologies for the lack of blogs in the last few months, but due to having to run around like a blue assed fly, for ventures that resulted in no cash, I have had to do other things. Needless to say, you will find the following essay has parallels with many things that are happening throughout the world today in 2013. (Some corrections are necessary as a 'work in progress' and the number of commas needed below is a matter of grammatical error for the expert or folly for the faint hearted. I make no apologies. but assume it is better to get it on paper, than quibble about it's sum total of omissions.)
What is 'The Scottish Enlightenment' you ask? It was responsible for many of the world's important inventions, the most famous inventor being James Watt, who designed the steam engine. Science was not the only beneficiary, moral philosophy economics, architecture, and art, were all effected by the brainstorm that was unleashed in Scotland between 1720 to 1790. It was to produce, Adam Smith, the economist of the book the Wealth of Nations, the architect, Robert Adam, responsible for neo-classical buildings, David Hume, the Father of Modern Philosophy. The list of inventors in the field of mathematics, engineering is too great to list here, but they were responsible for the next generation of Scottish inventors, namely, Alexander Graham Bell for the telephone, John Logie Baird for the Television. Alexander Fleming for Penicillin. This amazing concentration of inventions from people who were educated in Scotland, spanned almost 200 years, in intellectual activity. Today in it's shadow the modern world was created.
The Roots of the Scottish Enlightenment
If we liken the Scottish
Enlightenment to a tree that grew many offshoots and branches, it was to have
roots in the era before it, which had seen the success of the Protestant
Religion burgeon into a force that had swallowed both Church and state so that
the fine line between the legal and fiscal functions of government was
inextricably linked with the morals invoked by the Church. This began to have a
stifling effect on the population who could not move without being accused of
fornication or at worst blasphemy. Whilst the Church had started out as a force
for change and equality, after the death of John Knox, the Church began to be
stultified, eroding the freedoms it once sought. The very intellectuals who had
been created by the ‘Parish’ free schools system created by John Knox in his
Book of Discipline, railed against the imposition of Church doctrines on
secular life. The Scottish Enlightenment was to become almost a counter
revolution against the hierarchical nature of the priestly imposition on the
state conducted from the pulpit.
The era of the persecution
of witches, which was arguably used as a means of social control, instilled
fear into the population to abide by the growing repression contained in the New
Calvinism, which become bereft of the Freedoms first espoused by John Knox.
JOHN KNOX AND THE SCHOOL ACT
John Knox doctrines, were
to revolutionise Scottish society. In the Book of Discipline, he proposed the
Parish School, should to be free and open to all parishioners.
This meant education was accessible to the population in a way that had been
denied to them hitherto the Schools Act of 1696. The parish schools became very successful so much so, they were a significant factor in creation of the 'Scottish Enlightenment'' because they produced a highly literate population. The statistics bear this out, in that Scotland was to have the highest number of people per head of population, who could read and write in Europe. It is estimated that the total number of people who could read and write, including numeracy, were to be as high as 90 per cent of the population. This is an amazing number and even modern states would be hard pushed to create this kind of statistic. John Knox's Parish school meant that all classes, from all strata's of society could participate in gaining a higher education, once they completed the basic parish school curriculums.
In his vision, to create a society where every child would be able to read the bible, he was also creating a society with a highly educated work force, who were able to conduct themselves in a trade or craft but, also at the same time converse, read and write about the higher matters in life of moral philosophy, art and religion.
The epitome of a Scottish Enlightenment and pupil of the parish was in fact Robert Burns the apparent 'unschooled' poet, who had been taught by a Parish teacher, in the classics of the Latin and Greek tradition. He was to become one of the key voices of The Scottish Enlightenment'. John Knox had succeeded in his wish of creating a 'bible reading' population, but in doing so he had also created a population intelligent enough to question his creed. John Knox became of victim of his own success. He created a literate population who were ready to question his judgements, but his legacy remains today, in that he laid the basis for the principle of free, state run schools with easy access from the general population. ( These schools, were paid for by Church collections, as well as local government donations. They put in place the Parish Teacher, to provide general knowledge, the classics and numeracy as well as the Bible. This was free and open to everyone including women and girls.)
In his vision, to create a society where every child would be able to read the bible, he was also creating a society with a highly educated work force, who were able to conduct themselves in a trade or craft but, also at the same time converse, read and write about the higher matters in life of moral philosophy, art and religion.
The epitome of a Scottish Enlightenment and pupil of the parish was in fact Robert Burns the apparent 'unschooled' poet, who had been taught by a Parish teacher, in the classics of the Latin and Greek tradition. He was to become one of the key voices of The Scottish Enlightenment'. John Knox had succeeded in his wish of creating a 'bible reading' population, but in doing so he had also created a population intelligent enough to question his creed. John Knox became of victim of his own success. He created a literate population who were ready to question his judgements, but his legacy remains today, in that he laid the basis for the principle of free, state run schools with easy access from the general population. ( These schools, were paid for by Church collections, as well as local government donations. They put in place the Parish Teacher, to provide general knowledge, the classics and numeracy as well as the Bible. This was free and open to everyone including women and girls.)
Of this change in the
People's access to education, Adam Smith said in his Wealth of Nations, that the
Parish school system had taught ‘almost the whole common people to read, and a
very great proportion of them to write and account. ‘
The Influence of New Ideas
The Influence of New Ideas
Prior to 1700, the trial
and execution of Thomas Aitkenhead was to galvanise, the educated Scottish
middle classes, against the cruelty and absolutism of the law of blasphemy.
Thomas Aitkenhead had
criticised the rule of God, in a Bible class, but the way he said this, was open
to interpretation. What was an off the cuff remark, became an accusation
against him, when he was accused of blasphemy, a crime that held the penalty of
death. After his imprisonment and many months of trial, amid his own confession
to love God’s laws, he was sentenced to death. Many lawyers and legal brains
like John Locke had tried to intercede in the trial to prevent the young boys
death, but the Church Elders, who were also part of the Government were adamant
that the law of Blasphemy must be upheld.
The trial was very
unpopular amongst the people, but despite some protests, the boy was executed.
The resulting fall out with the Church elite, brought up many issues about the
correctness of having a powerful Church that was intervening in the laws of the
state. It meant that many intellectuals began to call for the separation of
Church and state, because it seemed that extreme interpretations of the Church
with regard to Blasphemy were not in line with the secular interpretations of
criminal behaviour. Should the Church and State be separate? By the end of the
Scottish Enlightenment, the whole structure of Scottish Government was to change.
End of Witchcraft
Witchcraft, or rather the
fear of it, was the force to be reckoned with throughout the previous, 16th
and 17th centuries, particularly in Scotland when a wave of burnings
and executions were common place in the guise of the 'Witch Hunt'. Witch hunting had become part of the armoury
of Religion, to instil fear into the congregation to uphold the values of the
Church, but in doing so the Church lost the values of the Bible. The era of superstition based on an idea of
witchcraft, amid cries of ‘Burn Her, Burn Her’, was to become a thing of the
past, giving way to the forces of reason. But political changes going on in
England were first to make a big impact on Scotland, prior to the Scottish
Enlightenment.
UNION OF THE CROWNS AND PARLIAMENTS
Before 1700, England was
experiencing what was known as the ‘Killing Times’ from 1667 to 1680 under the
rule of Charles the second. It was to end in 1688 with the ‘Glorious
Revolution’ and the enthronement of William of Orange in a bid to bring about
the end of the Stuart Monarchy. It by some quirk of fate brought the lineage of
the royal line of the Kings of Scotland and England together. Before long it
was to herald the Union of Parliament's between Scotland and England. This move
was hastened by an Economic disaster in Scotland in 1695, known as the Darien
Scheme. It was a complete monumental catastrophe for Scottish trade and wealth.
The scheme was supposed to allow Scotland to claim a patch of land in Panama
that would control world trade. The idea of this excited the Scottish gentry’s
sense of worth, but sent them over a precipice, like Lemmings. In their attempt
to get a piece of it, they invested large sums of money, to take several ships,
with an army to win the land from the Natives there. They were to raise and
squander 400,000, half of the total money in the country of Scotland at the
time.
It ended in tears, the
Scots failed to claim the land in the ensuing battles that took place with the
Natives and Spanish, who also believed they were the owners of the land in
Panama. The creators of the Darien scheme, Paterson and Fletcher, were defeated.
They left behind them broken investors, with the economy in Scotland unable to
mend the void of cash.
So much so, that when the
suggestion came up to Unite the Parliaments, many of those who had invested in
the Darien Scheme, were anxious to make gains from the more buoyant English
economy, with its sprawling successful Empire of trade in both the East and West
of the World.
Union of Parliaments
In 1707, therefore the stage
was set for a Union of Economies that was tied together in the Union of
Parliaments. It was brokered by the aggressive Hanoverian, the Marquis of
Queensberry, who went around the Scottish aristocracy, trying to get them to
sign the act of parliament that would seal the fates of the two countries. It
was not agreed upon by the people, who raised a mob in Edinburgh, which
effectively ran the gentry out of Parliament. In the end the Treaty of Union
was signed in secret in a cellar in Edinburgh, before the Marquis and his
cronies, were run out of town by an ensuing rabble. For his pains the Marquis
received 12000 pounds, for arranging it all, by the English authorities.
In the book ‘How the Scots
Invented the Modern World’, Arthur
Herman claims that the Treaty of Union meant that Scotland became wealthy for
over 20 years and that this stable economy created the foundations for the
Scottish Enlightenment.
But he points out that the
taxes needed to support the Union were unpopular with the people, because they
were much higher than the taxes of the previous Independent Scotland. So when
Bonnie Prince Charlie, raised his head above the parapet to reclaim the Ancient
Regime, he gained some support, because many thought he might reverse the Union
of the countries and bring Scotland back to its own Nation.
Economic Stability
Herman claims further, that
by not spending money and time on governing, the Scots got the best of both
Worlds, in that they got peace and order from a strong administrative state, with the
freedom to develop and innovate without undue interference. Further Herman says
that the Treaty of Union destroyed an Independent Kingdom and put Scotland’s
economy into a tail spin, but it turned out to be the making of the 'Scottish
Enlightenment.'
The statistics relating to
the Economy at the time do seem to bear that out. Grain exports doubled.
Lowland farmers were faced with falling prices due to a grain surplus. Glasgow
merchants entered the Atlantic trade. By 1715 they were taking 15% of the
tobacco trade and within 2 decades they were running it. Then by 1755 the value
of Scottish exports had doubled.
Herman’s by line on this,
is that despite the economic boom, it was something more intrinsic to Scottish
culture that actually created the Scottish Enlightenment – the Universities and
the Law courts unaffected by the Union were the driving force for The Scottish
Enlightenment. In the coming weeks we will see how they achieved it.
What ever the ferment that caused 'The Scottish Enlightenment' the ingredients of the bubbling pot, in which it was contained, rose up from a simmer at the beginning of the 1700's to become a bubbling boiling mass of intellectual activity, in the 1760's to 1860's, resulting in many of the inventions, we now consider made the modern world.
For more information, with entertaining video's on the people who created 'The Scottish Enlightenment' you can see a helpful website here
For more information, with entertaining video's on the people who created 'The Scottish Enlightenment' you can see a helpful website here
SCOTTISH ENLIGHTENMENT
Strathclyde University 2013
Recommended Reading List.
‘How the Scots Invented the
Modern World’ by Arthur Herman ( New York Times Best Seller)
‘Scots who Enlightened the World’
by Andrew Ferguson
