Education for Life: Correspondence and Writings on Religion and Practical Philosophy

by George Turnbull, M. A. Stewart (Editor), Paul Wood (Editor)

Overview

George Turnbull belongs with a group of early Scottish Enlightenment thinkers, including Francis Hutcheson, who found their native Calvinism too repressive. They sought to relocate religion within a context of reason and science and to establish a tolerant and humane ethic upon values rooted in classical ideals.

In a distinctive voice, Turnbull presented natural-law theory “scientifically,” harnessed the arts to promote moral and civil virtue, and extolled reason as the foundation of liberty. The works in this volume exhibit the close interrelations between these concerns and show him as a paradigmatic “Enlightenment” figure. This extremely rare material includes two Aberdeen graduation theses, three tracts on religion, various writings on education and art, and, for the first time in print, the correspondence of Turnbull.

George Turnbull (1698–1748) was born in Scotland and ordained into the Church of England in 1739. A key figure in the Scottish Enlightenment, he taught moral philosophy at Marischal College, Aberdeen, where one of his pupils was Thomas Reid, who became the main representative of the Scottish Common Sense philosophy.

M. A. Stewart is Honorary Research Professor in the History of Philosophy at the Universityies of Lancaster and Aberdeen.

Paul Wood is Professor of History at the Universityof Victoria.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780865976214
Publisher:	Liberty Fund, Incorporated
Publication date:	01/08/2015
Series:	Natural Law and Enlightenment Classics
Pages:	700
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.60(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

Table of Contents

Introduction ix
Editorial Principles xxvii
List of Abbreviations xxix
Acknowledgments xxxi

Correspondence, 1718–1741 1
Graduation Theses 43
Philosophical Theses: On the Association of Natural Science with Moral Philosophy 45
Academical Theses: On the Most Beautiful Structure
of the Material and the Rational World 59
The Religion of the State 75
A Philosophical Enquiry concerning the Connexion between the Miracles and Doctrines of Jesus Christ 91
Christianity Neither False nor Useless, Tho’ Not as Old as the Creation 171
An Impartial Enquiry into the Moral Character of Jesus Christ 217
From Three Dissertations 275
Dedication to Richard Mead 281
Preface to the Reader 287
From The History of the World Translated from the Latin of Justin 297
A Prefatory Discourse, concerning the Advantages Masters ought chiefly to have in view, in reading any ancient Historian, Justin in particular, with young scholars 303
From A Treatise on Ancient Painting 325
An Epistle to the Right Honourable the Lord Viscount Lonsdale, Upon Education, and the Design of this
Essay on Painting, &c. 335
A Preface, concerning Education, Travelling, and the Fine Arts 351
Observations on the Sameness of good Taste in all the Arts, and in Life and Manners; on the Sources and Foundations of rational Pleasures in our Natures, and the Usefulness of the fine Arts in a liberal Education 370
Bibliography 431
Index 449