On The Scottish Enlightenment Thinkers' Civil Society Theory

The Scottish Enlightenment is an important component of the Enlightenment in the 18^th century. Unlike the European Enlightenment in France and Germany, Scottish Enlightenment is a post-revolutionary Enlightenment after the political transition. Its main concerns are the economic and social development of the society rather than political revolution, and the running of civil society instead of the establishment of the political society.This dissertation is "problem"-oriented, focusing on the reading of the "text". It probes into the Scottish Enlightenment thinkers' civil society theory, particularly the theoretical studies and enlightenment ideas concerning man, society, state, moral life, and economic development. Through a spatial observation form five dimensions, the writer holds that Scottish Enlightenment thinkers share a lot in common in the shaping, maintenance and development of the civil society despite the disagreement even antagonism existing among them in the ideological orientation. Unlike the rationalist, they adopt an emotional approach, view man as sentimental animal, and believe that public order and good manners are possible by the approbation and applause by moral sense. Different from the contractualist, they hold that society is spontaneous and the unconscious consequences, thus the evolution of society is a natural historical process, which is driven by modes of subsistence, property relation, etc., and the development of society is full of historical dialectics. Unlike the various interventionism, though they expressed different concerns towards the society of businessmen on alienation of labor division, the tension of wealth and virtue, lack of public spirit, political slavery, they still assert that commerce should be rooted in freedom; advocate the logic of the market itself, and are convinced that commerce can develop out of the flower of freedom and bear the fruits of civilization.Unlike successors Hegel's and Marx's civil society theory, they believe that their theory has the dimension of virtue, and that the civil society is self-contained in ethnics, thus it doesn't need the moral relief by the state. Unlike the radical attitude in the French Enlightenment, there are the sound, progressive and compromising political styles in their political thoughts: they neither advocate "the authoritarian state" nor fall for "the minimum state", rather, they contend for "the limited state" and "the state under the rule of law", laying special stress on "the principle of rights" without the denial of "the pragmatic principles" at the same time. Therefore, on one hand, they view the ruler as "a knave", on the other hand, they advise that citizens should have the sense of loyalty; still, they uphold "liberty under the law" for citizens, meanwhile, they are quite cautious about "the right to revote" and political innovation.In the epilogue, the writer fully affirms their fruitful Enlightenment to de-ethical politics and de-relionized ethics, which are the fundamental characteristics of the modem civil society.