French and Scottish Liberty
by Robert Curry
Issue 114 - August 20, 2008

"We have had to the present day two different traditions in the theory of liberty...[one] was made explicit mainly by a group of Scottish moral philosophers led by David Hume, Adam Smith and Adam Ferguson...Opposed to them was the tradition of the French Enlightenment."
F. A. Hayek, The Constitution of Liberty

Hayek's point is important because of the decisive influence of the Scottish Enlightenment on the Founders' thinking on liberty. By contrast, the French Enlightenment had virtually no influence. The Founders were steeped in the Scottish tradition, and that was the tradition they relied upon. As Daniel Walker Howe put it, "the Scots spread a rich intellectual table from which the Americans could pick and choose and feast."

The Scottish Enlightenment was made up of men who delighted in vigorous debate. And yet, as Samuel Fleischacker has written, "the Scots did tend to share some general views--on the sociability of human nature, on the importance of history to moral philosophy and social science, on the dignity and intelligence of ordinary people--that were of great importance to their followers in America and elsewhere." Those shared general views informed the American debate, and provided the basis of a fundamental agreement among the Founders.

This fundamental agreement is a matter of the utmost importance. How different our history might have been if there had been a significant party among the Founders committed to the ideas of the French Enlightenment. For Voltaire and Diderot the political ideal was the enlightened despotism of a reforming monarch, like Frederick in Prussia or Catherine in Russia. Government by the people was folly because, as Diderot wrote, "the general mass of men are not so made that they can either promote or understand this forward march of the human spirit." Fortunately for us the Founders did not have to debate these fundamental issues.

The central role the Scottish Enlightenment played in America's founding has been largely forgotten. Even the fact that there was a Scottish Enlightenment has been eclipsed by the prominence of the French Enlightenment. When even well-educated people discuss the Enlightenment, they almost invariably are actually discussing the French Enlightenment. As a result, we are prevented from recognizing how much America is even today an Enlightenment enterprise.

If we want to understand the thinking of the Founders, perhaps the best place to start is where the Founders began--with the Enlightenment tradition of liberty that informed their thinking.