The University of Edinburgh was one of the principal centres of the Scottish Enlightenment of the eighteenth century. This lecture will commence with a brief discussion of the syllabus studied by students in the late sixteenth century, and contrast this with the radically modern ideas which thinkers such as David Hume and Adam Smith were later to advance - ideas which still resonate in our time.  

John Gordon is a Teaching Fellow in Humanities at the Centre for Open Learning. He received his PhD in Philosophy from the University of Edinburgh, and has taught with the university since 1989. John's principal interests are the Scottish Enlightenment and the philosophy, literature and history of the ancient Greeks.