Description
Book SynopsisThis book tells the personal story of Dugald Stewart (1753-1828), whose circular memorial monument on Calton Hill is one of Edinburgh's best known landmarks. Originally a mathematician like his father, Stewart held the Chair of Moral Philosophy at Edinburgh University for 25 years and became the most distinguished philosopher in Britain. He was a gifted teacher whose character and eloquence influenced students who were to become famous in many walks of life. Two of them became Prime Minister. A lifelong Whig, Stewart was in France at the outbreak of the French Revolution, and there knew Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson. He wrote biographical memoirs of Adam Smith and two other contemporaries. He gave Britain's first course on economics, attended by all four founder members of the 'Edinburgh Review', and his political, as well as his philosophical influence extended well into the 19th century. His wife was a generous hostess whose lively and amusing letters are quoted extensively in the book, and she and Stewart are shown to have been significant figures in the cultural life of the time.
Table of ContentsCONTENTS: Who was Dugald Stewart?; Family Background and Infancy; At School and University (1761-1772); The Young Stewart, Mathematician (1772-1780); Boarders, Travels, Marriage and Change (1780-1785); The Young Stewart, Philosopher (1785-1787); Stewart and Robert Burns; Revolutionary France and Remarriage (1787-1790); Liberal Philosopher in a Harsh Climate (1790-96); Students and Travels (1796-1800); The Stewarts and the Palmerstons (1800-1803); Social Life and the Leslie and Ashburton Affairs (1803-1805); Towards Retirement (1806-1810); The Teacher and the Man; The Early Years of Retirement (1810-1815); Deaths of Friends and the Final Break (1815-1820); The Last Years (1820-1828); Epilogue; Index.
