Book contents
- Experimental Philosophy and the Origins of Empiricism
- Ideas In Context
- Experimental Philosophy and the Origins of Empiricism
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Acknowledgements
- A Note on Citations
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Part I The Rise of Experimental Philosophy
- Part II The Heyday of Experimental Philosophy
- Chapter 4 Mathematical Experimental Philosophy
- Chapter 5 Experimental Philosophy in France
- Chapter 6 Experimental Natural Philosophy and Moral Philosophy
- Part III From Experimental Philosophy to Empiricism
- Conclusion
- Manuscripts Cited
- Newspapers, Broadsheets, and Almanacs
- References
- Index
Chapter 6 - Experimental Natural Philosophy and Moral Philosophy
from Part II - The Heyday of Experimental Philosophy
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 February 2023
- Experimental Philosophy and the Origins of Empiricism
- Ideas In Context
- Experimental Philosophy and the Origins of Empiricism
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Acknowledgements
- A Note on Citations
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Part I The Rise of Experimental Philosophy
- Part II The Heyday of Experimental Philosophy
- Chapter 4 Mathematical Experimental Philosophy
- Chapter 5 Experimental Philosophy in France
- Chapter 6 Experimental Natural Philosophy and Moral Philosophy
- Part III From Experimental Philosophy to Empiricism
- Conclusion
- Manuscripts Cited
- Newspapers, Broadsheets, and Almanacs
- References
- Index
Summary
This chapter turns from France to Scotland and from natural philosophy to moral philosophy. Through an examination of a number of leading Scots moral philosophers, we examine the impact of experimental philosophy on the project of the science of man in the Scotland of the eighteenth century. While it is incorrect to speak a movement of experimental moral philosophy in eighteenth-century Scotland, the impact of this new approach to natural philosophy is evident in its critique of speculation and hypotheses, in the roles that moral philosophers accorded to experiment and observation, in the rudimentary philosophy of experiment found in the writings of David Hume, and in the attempts by Scottish moral philosophers, such as George Turnbull, to apply the method of natural history and to incorporate analogues of physical laws in their theories. This chapter provides us with ample evidence for the claim that experimental philosophy had a decisive impact on the development of Scottish moral philosophy of the eighteenth century.
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- Experimental Philosophy and the Origins of Empiricism , pp. 176 - 200Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2023