Adam Smith and Dugald Stewart

Paying tribute to Dugald Stewart's work during his tenure of the Chair of Moral Philosophy at Edinburgh, Sir James Mackintosh remarked that ‘Without derogation from his writings, it may be said that his disciples were among his best works.’ This parallel is no less accurate for being drawn by one who might well be considered a disciple himself. For just as Stewart produced a substantial philosophical oeuvre which in its main lines derives from that of Thomas Reid, so too he decisively influenced a large number of men who must all, in varying degrees, be characterized as intellectual epigoni. Although Stewart and his circle produced few new and original ideas, they nevertheless deserve some attention, not just because of their influence but also because of an intellectually interesting pattern to their eclecticism, an understanding of which is necessary for an appreciation of the precise nature of their influence.

It is with this pattern of thought – or at least an example of it – that I am concerned here, not with the question of their influence. The latter is fairly well known and documented – how they created the Edinburgh Review; influenced the Whig Party and, beyond that, liberal politics in the nineteenth century; were involved in the making of the Reform Act of 1832; contributed to the spread of educational institutions, ranging from Lancastrian schools to London University.