Andrew S. Skinner

A Scottish Contribution to Marxist Sociology

The Scottish contribution to what are now known as the ‘social sciences’ has often been noted, not only by economists and historians, but especially by sociologists. Albion Small produced a study of Adam Smith and Modern Sociology as early as 1907, building on an established German tradition, to be followed, amongst others, by W. C. Lehmann’s Adam Ferguson and the Beginnings of Modern Sociology (1930). Gladys Bryson, influenced to a considerable extent by the work of sociologists such as Small and Franklin Giddings, published two important articles in 1932 and 1939, respectively,1 prior to the appearance of her main contribution, Man and Society: The Scottish Inquiry of the Eighteenth Century (1945). This (rather underrated) work, while explicitly building on the findings of others, broke some new ground in commenting on the contributions of a ‘Scottish group’ or ‘school’ whose members were part of a close-knit community. The contributions to which Professor Bryson referred include the subject area of psychology as well as of sociology —both of which are shown to have been deployed in the treatment of history, ‘the absorbing interest’ of the period. This distin-guished tradition was continued with the later works of Lehmann, on Kames and Millar,2 not to mention Professor Macrae’s Ideology and Society (1961).3

NATURAL HISTORY IN THE AGE OF ADAM SMITH

OF ALL the periods of Scottish history, the eighteenth centuryis surelyone of the most striking. The century witnessed profound economic and political changes, but it is perhaps particularly interesting from the standpoint of the historian of ideas. Especially after the middle of the century, there was a remarkably high and well sustained level of intellectual activity which embraced many fields of study. In literature, the period not only included Bums but also Tobias Smollett, John Home, William Wilkie and the blind poet Blacklock.’ In the field of jurisprudence, there were Lord Kames2 and Professor John Millar,3 perhaps the most original legal minds of their time; in philosophy, David Hume, Smith and Francis Hutcheson4; in economics, Smith and Sir James Steuart.5 The catalogue of names is almost endless, leading Hume to remark, with understandable satisfaction, that : ‘Really it is admirable, how many men of genius this country produces at present.’6 It was not national pride which prompted Smollett’s comment that Edinburgh was a veritable hot-bed of genius; Sir Walter Scott, himself a personal friend of Adam Ferguson’s7 in the Professor’s later years, spoke no more than the truth when he said that such men comprised: ‘a circle never closed against strangers of sense and information, and which has perhaps at no period been equalled, considering the depth and variety of talent which it embraced and concentrated.’8 But while contributions were made to many fields, this was above all the

Adam Smith: Theory and Policy

Adam Smith was appointed to the Chair of Logic in Glasgow University in 1751. He was translated to the Chair of Moral Philosophy in 1752 and held this post until he retired from academic life in 1764. During this period Smith took an active part in the administration of the University and also taught extensively, even by modern standards. On Mondays to Fridays he lectured to the public or graduating class from 7.30 to 8.30 a.m. and met the same class again at 11 o’clock in order to “examine” the students on the topics of the first address. He also lectured on the “private” class at 12 noon, 3 days a week.