Constitutional Thoughts Of Madison And The Scottish Enlightenment

The Scottish Enlightenment played a vital role in making the US Constitution. This dissertation is to probe into the relationship between "Father of the US Constitution" Madison and Scottish Enlightenment. Scottish Enlightenment is an important source of British liberalism. Unlike radical attitude of the French Enlightenment scholars, Scottish Enlightenment thinkers admired moderation and compromise. They not only suggested a new form of human science, they also created theory of the extended republic. Madison drew nourishment from Scottish Enlightenment, and he took scattered and incomplete fragments and built them into a theoretical structure of his own. His theory is based on sound interpretation on human being. The theory of the extended republic is undoubtedly his greatest contribution and it is his most far-reaching thought, which makes him practise establishing a strong republic in an extensive nation for the first time. Compromise thinking is a "tool" to generation of Madison's thought, and it is indispensable to Madison's thought as well.Madison learned from the Scottish Enlightenment, and he reconciled and extended it according to the reality of the United States. Madison improved Smith's "impartial spectator" theory, making "self-examination" by individuals rose to the range of countries. Also, he transplanted "impartial spectator" in mind to the design of the Constitution to constrain its inherent uncertainty. Maybe the initial inspiration for theory of "the extended republic" derived from Hume, but its design was different from Hume's "perfect commonwealth". Scottish Enlightenment inspired Madison's constitutional thoughts; in the meantime, Madison promoted the Scottish Enlightenment further through making the Constitution.