The thesis explores the history of the Scottish Enlightenment in its transatlantic context and, in particular, the diffusion of Scottish Enlightenment moral philosophy in late eighteenth and early nineteenth-century Scotland and the United States. This project is the first full-scale attempt to examine the tensions between late eighteenth-century Scottish Enlightenment intellectual culture and counter-Enlightenment interests in the Atlantic World. My comparative study focuses on two of the most influential university educators in Scotland and the newly-founded United States. These are Dugald Stewart at the University of Edinburgh and Samuel Stanhope Smith at the College of New Jersey (which later became Princeton University). Stewart and Smith are ideal for a transatlantic comparative project of this kind, because of their close parallels as moral philosophy professors at the University of Edinburgh (1785-1810) and the College of New Jersey (1779-1812) respectively; their conflicts with ecclesiastical factions and counter-Enlightenment policies in the first decade of the nineteenth century; and finally their uses and adaptations of Scottish Enlightenment moral philosophy. The broader question I address is how the diffusion and fate of Scottish Enlightenment moral thought was affected by the different institutional and, above all, religious contexts in which it was taught. Dugald Stewart’s and Stanhope Smith’s interpretations of central philosophical themes reflected their desire to improve the state of society by educating enlightened and virtuous young men who would later enter careers in public life. In doing so, their teaching of natural religion and metaphysics brought them into conflict with religious factions, namely American religious revivalists on Princeton’s Board of Trustees and members of the Scottish ecclesiastical Moderate party, who believed that revealed religion should provide the foundation of education. The controversies that emerged from these tensions did not develop in an intellectual vacuum. My research illustrates how the American and Scottish reception of the French Revolution; the 1793-1802 Scottish Sedition Trials; Scottish and American ‘polite’ culture; Scottish secular and ecclesiastical politics; American Federalist and Republican political debates; American student riots between 1800 and 1807; and American religious revivalism affected Smith’s and Stewart’s programmes of moral education. While I identify this project as an example of cultural and intellectual history, it also advances interests in the history of education, ecclesiastical history, transnational history, and comparative history. The thesis has two main parts. The first consists of three chapters on Dugald Stewart’s system of moral education: the circumstances in which Stewart developed his moral education as a modern version of Thomas Reid’s so-called Common Sense philosophy, Stewart’s applied ethics, and finally, his defence of the Scottish Enlightenment in the context of the 1805 John Leslie case. Complementing the chronology and themes in part one, the second part consists of three chapters on Smith’s programme of moral education: the circumstances that gave rise to Smith’s creation of the Princeton Enlightenment, Smith’s applied ethics, and finally, Smith’s defence of his system of moral education in the contexts of what he saw as two converging counter- Enlightenment factions (religious revivalists and rebellious students) at Princeton. In examining these areas, I argue that Dugald Stewart and Samuel Stanhope Smith attempted to systematically sustain Scottish Enlightenment ideas (namely Scottish philosophy) and values (‘Moderatism’) against counter-Enlightenment movements in higher education.

This dissertation sets out to rethink, contextualise and historicise a commonplace notion in the Scottish Enlightenment which poses nations and societies as either improving or primitive. The Scottish Enlightenment philosophers were the eighteenth-century pioneers in an intellectual project of improvement pointing the light emerging in Europe, particularly in Britain. The Act of Union with Scotland (1707) and the process of modernisation in the Highlands of Scotland allowed for rhetoric of improvement which called upon Scotland with its Highlands to join the great British modernising project. The Scots literati were aware that joining this project jeopardises older cultural habits and values and also brings corruption into society but the other option was nothing but the dilemma of living in premodern, less commercially advanced age, one which, as they thought, prevailed in Arabian deserts and Islamic societies. Their rhetoric of improvement was one of difference between an improving Britain with technological and commercial progress and a backward Middle East with primitive modes of subsistence. For them, modernity did not cast its light on the eighteenth-century Middle East. They fixed Middle East on a lower stage of a universal grid of progress. In the cross-cultural encounters between Britons and Muslims which took place on the Syrian-Mesopotamia overland routes to India, as this dissertation argues, the polarising rhetoric of the Scottish Enlightenment proves to be one of conviction. It was not necessarily the only way of referring to the modern moment of change taking place in Britain. The four British writers which this dissertation examines were interested in the Enlightenment question of improvement. They were believers in progress but had their own doubts about the dominant notions in the habit of interpreting improvement in their own culture. By writing on material progress, commerce, manners and forms of morality which they encountered in Islamic lands they set out to offer their new understanding of the notion of progress. While doing so, they did not posit Islam and the Middle East as the fixed categories of backwardness the Scots literati had always celebrated in their defence of modern British commercial improvement. Rather they showed how Europeans can learn things and improve themselves by interacting with Muslims: caravan chiefs and merchants, political leaders and servants. All these cross-cultural scenes of interaction in which Britons gained improvement occurred in a period in which Britain was not a colonial power in the Middle East but rather a commercial and political partner with local Arabian and Muslim leaders. And writing about Islamic cultures, as this thesis demonstrates, was a way of rethinking British dominant views of the meaning of improvement in the modern age.

Thesis advisor: Christopher J. Kelly / In an effort to shed light on recent doubts about the future of liberal democracy, this dissertation compares the political thought of Montesquieu and Rousseau – two eighteenth-century philosophers who, beginning from strikingly similar premises, diverged radically in their prescriptions. Whereas Montesquieu sought to rationalize political life by nudging religion to the periphery of public consciousness, by attenuating patriotism, and by shifting legislative and judicial power to educated professionals, Rousseau sought to shore up religion’s popular influence, to instigate revivals of patriotism, and to defend popular self-government. I first take up their views of “the state of nature.” My account differs from those of the previous interpreters who have read the state of nature as a hypothetical construct, but it differs also from those of the previous interpreters who have read the state of nature as historical, inasmuch as I show that neither Montesquieu nor Rousseau made implausible assumptions about the naturalness of asociality or peacefulness. Next, I focus on the issue popular enlightenment. Whereas commentators have tended to cast Montesquieu simply as a proponent of the pacifying effects of enlightenment and Rousseau as a critic of its morally corrupting effects, I argue that they were both primarily interested in the relation between the dwindling of religious faith and the maintenance of the psychological qualities that underlie resistance to foreign and domestic threats to liberty. I then turn to the question of cosmopolitanism, suggesting that Montesquieu embraced it not because of any extreme idealism but because of his horror at the repressiveness and belligerence of actual patriotic republics. Likewise, I maintain that Rousseau’s embrace of patriotic “intoxication” was not a product of any romanticism; instead, it was a product of his thoroughly rationalistic inquiry into the phenomena of law and government. Finally, I argue that the divergence between them on the question of popular self-government followed from their divergent understandings of freedom. This divergence cannot be reduced either to “negative liberty” versus “positive liberty” or to “liberty as non-interference” versus “liberty as non-domination,” two paradigms that have long dominated Anglo-American political theorists’ thinking about freedom. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2018. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Political Science.

Thesis advisor: Christopher Kelly / The question my dissertation addresses is the relationship between human passions and politics. It attempts to try to understand whether or not there is a standard in nature for judging how human passions ought to be ordered, if at all, taking as guides Montesquieu and Rousseau. I try to see if we can know this standard by reason, and if so, how? And I try to understand whether or not any natural passions might be preserved and ordered well in society. In addition, I try to investigate how society, or various forms of government, modify or transform the natural passions, for good and ill. In The Spirit of the Laws, Montesquieu produces an ambitious yet politically practical vision of the best form of government. After evaluating and rejecting ancient republics animated by political virtue, monarchies animated by honor, and despotisms animated by fear as possible candidates for the best form of government, Montesquieu thinks he has found the best form of government in the modern English form of liberal commercial republicanism, rooted in political freedom, commerce, and a moderate and tolerant if diluted form of religion, which might triumph over the globe as the final rational and most humanly satisfying form of government. And according to Montesquieu, the principles of the modern commercial republic adhere to the political standards that have been rationally discovered through the final and correct understanding of men’s passions in the state of nature. Against this confident assertion and the ambitious scope of Montesquieu’s goals, nothing less than universal peace and prosperity, and the apparently true knowledge of the best form of government, Rousseau launches a no less ambitious critique of the early modern vision, casting doubt on its political feasibility, and on its awareness of the true core of human nature and happiness. Rousseau ultimately thinks that we cannot order the passions to create a best and enduring government, since human self-interest, irrationality, and corrupt social passions ultimately tend toward oppression, despotism, and universal misery. And according to Rousseau a return to nature is for virtually everyone impossible. I consider Rousseau’s account of the same passions that Montesquieu evaluates, which he examines primarily in the Second Discourse, Emile, Considerations on the Government of Poland, and Political Economy. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2016. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Political Science.

Autour de la carrière d'un couple d'historiens et d'intellectuels publics, cette thèse est une réflexion sur la pertinence contemporaine de la question des Lumières dans des débats où se mêlent encore des thématiques - nation, histoire, modernité - nées il y a plus d'un siècle. / Following the career of a couple of historians and public intellectuals, this thesis is a reflection on the contemporary consistency of the Enlightenment question in public debates where century old themes - nation, history, modernity - are still heavily disputed.

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L'expansion à l'étranger et la circulation de nouveaux produits entre le Nouveau et l'Ancien sont l'un des grands enjeux de l'historiographie dédiée au commerce de l'Atlantique et au commerce mondial. Bien que les spécialistes aient travaillé sur cette question en ce qui concerne l'insertion, l'adaptation et la consommation de ces nouveaux genres en Amérique, en Europe, en Asie et en Afrique, il y a eu peu de discussions sur les agents qui ont promu ce mouvement dans le monde entier: les commerçants spécialisés - les pharmaciens - et leurs entreprises commerciales. Cette thèse présente une histoire interconnectée entre ceux qui ont fourni des produits pour le marché médical en Europe et l'Amérique portugaise et la manière dont de nouveaux médicaments ont été introduits par le commerce mondial dans la seconde moitié du 18ème siècle. Son objectif principal est de fournir un aperçu analytique de la compréhension des processus qui ont été mutuellement globaux et locaux, par exemple: comment un médicament amérindien est-il un médicament certifié et garanti par la médecine européenne ou asiatique? Et comment ces produits ont-ils été introduits dans ces circuits et par quels itinéraires du marché? / The overseas expansion and circulation of new products between the New and Old World are one of the great issues for the historiography that is dedicated to the Atlantic trade and to the global commerce. While specialists have been working on this issue with regard to the insertion, adaptation and consumption of these new genres in America, Europe, Asia and Africa, there has been little discussion about the agents who have promoted this movement around the globe: specialized traders - druggists - and their trading companies. This thesis presents an interconnected history between those who provided products for the medical market in Europe and Portuguese America and the ways in which new medicines were introduced by global commerce in the second half of the 18th century. Its main objective is to provide an analytical overview for the understanding of processes that have been mutually global and local, for example: how did an Amerindian medicine become a medicine certified and guaranteed by European or Asian medicine? And how were these products introduced in these circuits and by what market routes?

The history of paganism captivated many scholars in eighteenth-century Europe, and was brought into some of the greatest philosophical and religious debates of the age. 'Paganism' was a term that encapsulated a variety of religious beliefs and practices in the ancient and modern worlds, categorically defined through their shared distinction from the Abrahamic traditions of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. Although research has been carried out into the historical study of paganism in eighteenth-century England and in many areas of continental Europe, histories of paganism produced in contemporary Scotland have largely been overlooked. This thesis aims to recover this forgotten dimension of Scottish historical scholarship by examining histories of paganism written by eighteenth-century Scots. It demonstrates that these writings provide valuable insights into Scottish intellectuals' attitudes towards religion and its history in the age of Enlightenment, and illuminate the ideas and scholarly practices that underpinned them. Part One examines the first half of the eighteenth century, exploring the writings of Robert Millar (1672-1752), Andrew Ramsay (1686-1743), Archibald Campbell (1691-1756), and Thomas Blackwell (1701-1757). It is shown that their approach to pagan religious history was founded in humanist scholarship and erudition; their findings were derived from the study of ancient texts, modern works of scholarship, and reports of modern pagans. It is demonstrated that this shared methodology did not translate into uniformity of interpretation. Pagan beliefs were variously regarded as manifestations of idolatry, as reflections of revealed religious truth, or as allegories of ancient philosophical wisdom; for some, paganism was soul-destroying, for others it was a crucial support for popular morality. It is argued, however, that each author provided a conjectural account of the origins of paganism, based on their perception of the earliest ages of human history, and their conception of the fabric of human nature. It is emphasised that, contrary to prevailing historiographical interpretations of the European study of paganism, the Scottish engagement with pagan religious history did not undermine contemporaries' attitudes towards the authority of the Christian Revelation or their perception of the superiority of Christianity. Part Two addresses the second half of the century, the age of the 'High Enlightenment'. It focuses on the natural histories of religion produced by the celebrated historians of the age, David Hume (1711-1776) and William Robertson (1721-1793). These works are generally regarded as the product of a new approach to historiography, which applied the science of human nature and society to the study of the origins and development of religious belief. It is argued here that these works in fact display remarkable continuity with the objectives, concepts, and scholarly practices that informed earlier histories of paganism. In framing their accounts of the natural development of religious belief, Hume and Robertson appealed to the evidence of the pagan past. A new emphasis on the stages of social and cognitive development supplemented, rather than replaced, the use of humanist scholarship, erudition, and conjecture in the study of pagan religious history. Nor did natural histories of religion necessarily threaten the privileged status of revealed Christianity. The thesis thus problematises the sharp division often drawn between the 'early' and 'high' phases of the Scottish Enlightenment, and questions the extent to which Scottish conceptions of religion and its history were radically transformed during the eighteenth century.

This dissertation studies a case of Enlightenment art created in feudal conditions of servitude. The Sheremetevs, one of the richest and most powerful families in eighteenth-century Russia, had some of their hundreds of thousands of serfs trained as painters, architects, opera singers, and musicians. Two of these serfs, Ivan and Nikolai Argunov, became successful portraitists who painted a range of sitters from Empresses to fellow serfs. Tensions between social rank and individuality, already a preoccupation for eighteenth-century portrait painters, became particularly pronounced in this situation. While recent scholarship has focused on the Argunovs' cosmopolitan influences, their paintings of fellow serfs and others of low rank are sometimes visually and iconographically distinct from their usual output. This category of portrait, this dissertation argues, should be considered within the context of the other artistic projects of the Sheremetev household. Despite strong Western European influences on the Argunovs, the painters were also exposed to extremely personal and local precedents. These include earlier portraits, garden prints, an atlas project, the Sheremetevs' many collections, and operas staged by the family's renowned serf theater. Working within this visual environment, Ivan and Nikolai Argunov painted their subjects in intricately allusive ways. Their portraits represented and negotiated the complications of serfdom in a setting where unusual social change was possible.

Important tenets of Enlightenment thought, specifically natural theology and philosophical naturalism, mark both the libretto and certain aspects of the music of Haydn's Creation. The opening chapters of the dissertation establish the philosophical, historical, literary, and musical milieu as shaped by leading thinkers of the period. Influences of important precursors are discussed, including Milton's Paradise Lost and earlier "creation" oratorios. The libretto of Creation, through its revisionist treatment of the biblical account of creation, reflects a shift from the orthodox Christian, apologetic perspective of Handelian oratorio toward a deistic representation of biblical truth. Paralleling this shift away from theological orthodoxy is The Creation's departure from the contrapuntal textures of Baroque oratorio--associated by James Webster and Hermann Danuser with the element of the musical "sublime"--to a pluralistic musical palette including elements from secular genres such as opera and symphony. These parallel shifts move the work toward naturalism. The Creation's ultimate message is one of Enlightenment optimism produced by the oratorio's religious tolerance--demonstrated by the omission of the Fall narrative--and musical eclecticism. Musical inclusivity is conveyed by a mixture of styles and conventions that cross normative standards for setting sacred texts. The analysis of text-music relationships in Creation builds on theoretical constructs of Danuser and Kramer, focusing on smaller- to larger-level musical sections that demonstrate the contrast in style and values represented by the sublime and idyllic. Both texts and music of The Creation elevate values of naturalism while simultaneously "rescinding" the sublime element into the beautiful or "idyllic." Concluding chapters focus on reception history of The Creation in both Austria and England, Haydn's two target audiences for the work.