This volume expounds the influence of Robert Burns’s reading of Philosophy
on his life and work, supplementing this with his personal encounters
with those philosophers he met. The work begins with the
Homespun Philosophy of his early years under the tutelage of William
Burnes and John Murdoch, then examines in detail some of the texts of
John Locke, Adam Smith and Francis Hutcheson, including other writers
who reflect Hutcheson’s thinking. Further chapters include the exploration
on Thomas Reid, Dugald Stewart, Archibald Alison and William
Greenfield.
Robert Burns and the Philosophers
does not purport to be a
work of philosophy but rather to show the poet’s reaction to the subject
and the development of his understanding. This work opens up a subject
that hitherto has been almost unexplored.