Uncovering the historical roots of naturalistic, secular contemporary ethics, in this volume Michael Gill shows how the British moralists of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries completed a Copernican revolution in moral philosophy.

Craig Smith explores Ferguson's thought, and examines his attempt to develop a genuine moral science and its place in providing a secure basis for the virtuous education of the new elite of Hanoverian Britain.

... the Scots on this and other topics : The Scottish Moralists on Human Nature and Society ( Chicago : University of Chicago Press , 1967 ) . 21. Thomas Reid , The Works of Thomas Reid , preface , notes and supplemen- tary dissertations by ...