Part of the Europe-wide Age of Reason, the Scottish Enlightenment was an intellectual movement that ranged across the fields of philosophy, chemistry, geology, architecture, poetry, engineering, technology, economics, sociology, medicine and history.
The 18th century is often described as Scotland’s ‘Golden Age’.
Scottish Enlightenment figures included David Hume, James Hutton, Robert Adam, Joseph Black, James Watt, Alison Rutherford, Adam Smith, Francis Hutcheson, Adam Ferguson and Thomas Reid.
In Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen, great thinkers sought to understand the natural world and the human mind.
Today, many historians believe that the ideas and advances that emerged from the Scottish Enlightenment helped to shape the modern world.
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Listen to The Flowers of the Forest, played by Rob MacKillop.
Learn about the intellectual movement of the 18th century which shaped the way we think and live today.
View items related to the scientist Joseph Black collected by National Museums Scotland.
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