SCOTT 



SCOTTISH PHILOSOPHY 



studied law, and was admitted to tlie li.-ir at Kich- 

 niiinil in 1H07. Keeling. however, greater aptitude 

 for military life, IK- obtained a mnniMBMI on 

 captain of "light artillery in May 1808. At New 

 Orleans he was eovrt-nwtfadlad for disrespectful 

 remarks aliout hi- commanding officer, und sus- 

 pended for a year. When wiir wiis declared against 

 Great llritnin in 1812, Scott, licing made lieutenant- 

 colonel, wan ordered to the Canadian frontier. 

 Crossing tin- Niagara River in October, lie fought 

 at ljii'eii-iown. and was taken primmer, Imt was 

 exchanged after three months. In May 1813 he 

 WM wounded at the capture of Fort George, and 

 in July 1814 at Lundy s Lain-; from this battle 

 hi- roiiimi-.-ion as major-general was dated. The 

 attempts to invade Canada proved failures, hut 

 Scott's personal achievements were regarded by 

 lii- country men as redeeming featurea in the 

 record. 



During the piisuing years of peace Scott framed 

 the 'General Regulations ' for the army, and intro- 

 duced the French system of tactics. In various 

 local troubles In- tact in preventing outbreaks was 

 shown, especially during the Nullification excite- 

 ment in South Carolina in 1832, and in the dis- 

 pute altout the boundary of Maine in 1839. He 

 succeeded to the chief command of the army in 

 1841. In 1847 General Scott was given the com- 

 mand of the army for the im a-ion of Mexico ; and 

 on 9th March, with aliout 12,000 troops, he invested 

 the city of Vera Cruz. After a heavy bombard- 

 ment, the city and the strong castle of San Juan 

 d'Ulloa capitulated on the 26th. Scott then 

 hastened to the tablelands, defeated Santa-Anna 

 at the pass of Cerro Gordo, am) captured Jalapa 

 and Pnelila. Here from May till August he was 

 obliged to wait for and drill reinforcements. When 

 he resumed the march the (tattles of Contreras and 

 Clmrulmsco opened the highway to the city of 

 Mexico, but a vain attempt to negotiate a treaty 

 caii-'d some weeks' delay. On 13th Septemlier 

 the castle of Cliapultepcc was carried by storm; 

 Santa- Anna lied from t be capital, and Scott entered 

 in triumph on the 14th. Here he remained until 

 the following February, when the treaty of peace 

 was signed. On this war General Scott's fame 

 rests ; lie boldly claimed that his campaign had 

 been 'successful as to every prediction, plan, siege, 

 battle, and skirmish.' 



Scntt had in politics belonged to the Whig party, 

 and in 1852 wa- it- candidate for the presidency, 

 but was easily defeated, owing Itolh to the dis- 

 integration of the part v and to his own blunders as 

 a jHililician. In 1855 tlie rank of lieutenant general 

 was revived in his favour. Scott was always a firm 

 supporter of the Union, and in the crisis of isiio i;i 

 remained true to his allegiance even when his 

 native state seceded. Though crippled by the 

 infirmities of age, lie retained nominal command 

 of I he army until November 1801. He died on 

 29th May jsiiO. u( We-t Point, and wan buried 

 there. Scott was a man of imposing presence, 

 8 feet 4 inches high. Though undeniably vain 

 ami pompon-', be was a -it ..... re jiatriot and of 

 unblemished integrity. His military genius was 

 evident !v adequate for a grander field than that 

 in which il was exorclMO, Hut bis fame- has 

 IH-CII oli-u-ured by tlie glare of the civil war, in 

 which tin- ollicer- trained under him had greater 

 oppoilnnilH-* todi-play their power-. His Memoirs, 

 liuhlishcd in IsiM. unfortunately rather empha-i-ed 

 hi- vaiiitv than vindicated his fume. The biogra- 

 phic-. wiilten l.y others an- of little value : lii- own 

 Memoln are elucidated by Genera! K. I). Keyes's 

 Fifty Yi'im nf 111,^1-1 ;iti,,n'( New York, 1884). 



Philosophy. Scotsmen taught 

 philosophy in Paris mid otlier foreign universities 

 flu i ing tlie middle- ages and as late as the 16th 



century, and in some cases they returned to 



academic positions in their native land. When 

 it is added that David Hume, the greatest name 

 which Scotland has contributed to philosophy, is 

 not included in the Scottish M-hool, it will be 

 apparent that the designation is not merely a mark 

 ol nationality, but expresses definite doctrines, or 

 at least a definite tendency, in philosophy. The 

 school may, for all practical purposes, M -aid to 

 take its rise in the revulsion headed by licid < 1710- 

 96) against the conclusions of the great sceptic. 

 Antiquarian research has sought to place the 

 foundation of the school earlier, in the teaching, 

 for example, of Gershom Carmichael, who was pro- 

 fessor in Glasgow from 1694 to 1729, or George 

 Turnbull, Reid's teacher at Alwrdeen, who lectured 

 from 1721 to 1748. Francis Hutcheson, who suc- 

 ceeded Carmichael in Glasgow, and lectured from 

 1729 to 1748, is more frequently mentioned as the 

 founder of tlie school, hut he lias a place rather 

 among the succession of English moral philosophers, 

 while the two other names are too obscure to 

 lie of any real account. Reid's answer to Hume 

 appeared^ in 1764 under the title An Enquiry into 

 the Hi/limn Mind on the Principles of Common 

 Sense. Hence the current but somewhat mislead- 

 ing designation of Reid and his followers as the 

 Common Sense (q.v.) school, which seems to imply 

 an appeal from philosophical conclusions to the 

 unreasoned verdict of ordinary consciousness. No 

 doubt a certain warrant for tfiis view of the Scot- 

 tish philosophers may be found in certain passages 

 of Reid himself, and still more in the diatribes 

 of the lesser men, like Heattie and Oswald, who 

 joined in the outcry against Hume, lint common 

 sense meant to Reid simply the common reason of 

 mankind, as constituted by certain fundamental 

 judgments which are expressed in the very struc- 

 ture of human language, and which are intuitively 

 recognised by the mind as true. Reid's answer to 

 Hume thus consists in traversing his reduction of 

 experience to unconnected ideas. He attempts to 

 show by a deeper analysis of experience that the 

 having of ideas, or rather of knowledge, implies 

 certain primitive or fundamental judgments as 

 irreducible elements. This constitutes his attack 

 upon what he calls 'the ideal theory,' that is to 

 say, upon the presuppositions which be finds 

 common to Descartes, Locke, Berkeley, and Hume; 

 anil in this, its most philosophical aspect, his theory 

 may !* compared with Kant's vindication of the 

 categories as elements necessary to the constitu- 

 tion of the simplest experience. The weakness of 

 Scottish philosophy has lain in its tendency to 

 treat these rational elements as isolated intuitions. 

 The reiterated appeal to 'the testimony of con- 

 sciousness' is a short and easy method of 'dis|>osing 

 of an opponent, but it is apt to leave the opponent 

 unconvinced. The natural dualism or natural 

 realism which forms such an outstanding feature 

 of Scottish philosophy asseii-, au-ainsl subjective 

 idealism, that the object or the non-ego is given 

 in knowledge along with the subject. Hut this 

 important epistemological position degenerates too 

 often into a crude metaphysical dualism of mind 

 and matter as two heterogeneous substances. 



Scottish philosophy has not produced anything like 

 a metaphysical system, but its inductive method of 

 procedure' has led to a large amount of valu- 

 able psychological oliscrvation lioth in the intel- 

 lectual and moral sphere of mental activity. This 

 is mainly what we find in Dugnld Stewart ( 1753- 

 1828), accompanied by a power of persuasive elo- 

 quence which made philosophy a force and a tradi- 

 tion in the national life. Dr Thomas Brown 

 (I77H 1S-20), his successor in the Edinburgh chair 

 of Moral Philosophy, was led by his acute psycho- 

 logical analysis so far in the direction of English 



