James Beattie

James Beattie was appointed professor of moral philosophy at Marischal College, Aberdeen, at the age of twenty-five. In 1770, he published the work for which he is best known, "An Essay on Truth", an abrasive attack on David Hume and philosophical scepticism. The first part of this selection - the first ever made from Beattie's prose writings - includes several key chapters from the "Essay on Truth", along with extracts from all of Beattie's other works on moral philosophy. The topics treated include memory, the existence of God, the nature of virtue, and slavery. The second part of the selection is devoted to Beattie's contributions to literary criticism and aesthetics. Beattie's studies of aesthetics are vital to the understanding of the literary culture out of which developed the early Romanticism of Wordsworth and Coleridge.