Edinburgh is often referred as the birthplace of Scottish Enlightenment, and one of the leading lights of that era, Adam Smith, published ‘An inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations’ in 1776 which revolutionised economic theory.
David Hume, the Scottish Enlightenment philosopher, lived in Ninewells House, just south of the village (see below).
During the late 18th century, during the Scottish Enlightenment, it was fashionable for landowners to found new towns and villages, and these can be found all over Scotland because unlike their predecessors they all have straight, wide streets in mainly rectangular layouts, a central square, and the houses built with their main elevations parallel to the street.
Lord Monboddo is renowned for his service as a member of the Court of Session, an author of several works during the Scottish Enlightenment and a precursive contributor to the theory of evolution.
While earlier authors such as Michel de Montaigne discussed how societies change through time, it was truly the Scottish Enlightenment which proved key in the development of cultural evolution.
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David Fordyce (1711, Broadford, Aberdeenshire – 1751) was a Scottish philosopher, a contributor to the Scottish Enlightenment.
After graduating from the University of St. Andrews, he spent two years in Edinburgh and Glasgow studying Scottish Enlightenment thinkers, including Francis Hutcheson, David Hume and Adam Smith.
He was also highly influenced by the social theories of Enlightenment thinkers such as Montesquieu, Lessing, Diderot, as well as by the Scottish enlightenment, Latin classics (mostly Cicero and Seneca), and the constitutional thought of the American founding fathers.
The inconclusive results of so many battles at sea interested Sir John Clerk of Eldin (1728–1812), a gentleman of the Scottish Enlightenment, illustrator of geologist James Hutton's Theory of the Earth