JDMcDsblog

Lord Kames

Originally uploaded by jmmcdgll

Henry Home, Lord Kames was one of the leading lights in the Scottish Enlightment of the late 18th century. A judge and author of several influential books, notably “Sketches of the History of Man”, Kames contributed much to the debate on religion, education, law and the nature of civil society. He was in good company. Among other leading thinkers of the day were philospher David Hulme and economist Adam Smith and  I am interested in tracing the parallels between this golden epoch in Scottish history and where education-and society- seems to be heading today. Does the Curriculum for Excellence and its attendant infrastructure of virtual learning, formative assessment and modularised courses signify a new enlightment. Is Web 2.0 the new community of ideas? The Enlightment ideal was that

people should think for themselves, but not by themselves.

Would Kames, Smith, Hutcheson and Hulme recognise- and applaud- the aspirations of a Journey to Excellence? Certainly they believed in the importance of a good, liberal and general education. George Davie has discussed this tradition  in his books “The Democratic Intellect” and the “Crisis of the Democratic Intellect”. Yet how significant was the Scottish Enlightment for the greater number of Scots, outwith the literati of the Edinburgh coffee houses? I hope to reflect on some of these issues over the next few posts.