Henry Home, Lord Kames, was by nature an advocate for reform and improvement and stood at the heart of the modernizing and liberalizing movement now known as the Scottish Enlightenment. The reaction to his Essays on the Principles of Morality and Natural Religion was a defining moment in the establishment of the predominance of moderation in the Church of Scotland.
Divided into three books, Kames’s Sketches of the History of Man draws together the concerns of many of his earlier works. The first book considers man in the private sphere and presents Kames’s version of the “four-stage theory of historyâ€: the progress, that is, from hunting, through “the shepherd state†to agriculture, and thence to commerce. It contains, in addition, sketches on progress in the arts, taste, manners, and appetite for luxury goods.
The second book takes as its subject man in the public sphere and explores the implications of his natural “appetite for society.†Kames develops the notion that political, legal, and financial institutions are best regulated when it is understood that they are outgrowths of aspects of human nature.
In the final book, Kames turns to an account of progress in the sciences of logic, morals, and theology. He seeks to vindicate the claim that “human understanding is in a progress towards maturity, however slow.†Throughout the entire work, Kames expounds on his fundamental hypothesis that at the beginning of the history of the human race, savagery was ubiquitous and that the human story is one of an emergence out of barbarism and toward maturity.
Henry Home, Lord Kames (1696–1782), one of the leaders of the Scottish Enlightenment, was a judge in the supreme courts of Scotland and wrote extensively on morals, religion, education, aesthetics, history, political economy, and law, including natural law. His most distinctive contribution came through his works on the nature of law, where he sought to combine a philosophical approach with an empirical history of legal evolution.
James Harris is a Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland.
Knud Haakonssen is Professor of Intellectual History and Director of the Centre for Intellectual History at the University of Sussex, England. BOOK I: Progress of Men Independent of Society 53 SKETCH I: Progress Respecting Food and Population 53 BOOK II: Progress of Men in Society 337 SKETCH I: Appetite for Society—Origin of National Societies 339 BOOK III: Progress of Sciences 581 SKETCH I: Principles and Progress of Reason 583 Latin Tags and Phrases 929
A Note on the Text xxi
Acknowledgments xxiii
SKETCH II: Progress of Property 68
SKETCH III: Origin and Progress of Commerce 74
SKETCH IV: Origin and Progress of Arts 91
SKETCH V: Manners 163
SKETCH VI: Progress of the Female Sex 259
SKETCH VII: Progress and Effects of Luxury 313
SKETCH II: General View of Government 371
SKETCH III: Different Forms of Government Compared 375
SKETCH IV: Progress of States from Small to Great, and from Great to Small 389
SKETCH V: Great and Small States Compared 396
SKETCH VI: War and Peace Compared 405
SKETCH VII: Rise and Fall of Patriotism 416
SKETCH VIII: Finances 432
SKETCH IX: Military Branch of Government 491
SKETCH X: Public Police with Respect to the Poor 521
SKETCH XI: A Great City Considered in Physical, Moral, and Political Views 546
SKETCH XII: Origin and Progress of American Nations 555
SKETCH II: Principles and Progress of Morality 701
SKETCH III: Principles and Progress of Theology 790
APPENDIX: Sketches Concerning Scotland 907
Bibliography 931
Index 945
Una Asombrosa Aventura de Jules 01
La Muerte Escarlata
Parker 03: el Golpe
El Ciclo de Cyann Integral. Tomos 1 y 2