Scottish Enlightenment [ Political & Moral philosophy ]
… that exercised the ‘ conversible World ’ could only be worked out in dialogue, mutual exchange, and – in short – society: Such subjects of thought require not sufficient Employment in Solitude, but require the Company and Conversation … had they become so? And what was the significance of sociability to what was increasingly thought of as the history of civil society? These controversies played out across a wide-ranging Scottish debate about the question of human natural … from Mandeville’s extreme and licentious conclusions. 7 Hume certainly celebrated the forms of ‘ deference and civility ’ that were essential to the sociable ‘ arts of conversation, ’ but such refinements and politeness were less …
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