Conjectural history
Conjectural history is a type of
Such conjectural history was the antithesis of the
Conjectural history has been identified as "the core of a theory" of
Early Modern context
There was nothing new in the idea of stages of society on its own, but social thinking itself was changing in
Models and the "savage"
Hodgen comments, in a chapter From Hierarchy to History, on the widespread use of "conjectural series" for historical explanation in the Early Modern period. The great chain of being was a static idea. "Stage series" had roots in classical thought, but might be associated with cyclic models, or incorporate ideas of decline with those of progress. She writes that in time
... it seems certain that hierarchical ideas, temporalized to suit the needs of the conjectural historian of culture, were mixed with historical assumptions concerning the savage as a conjectural first member of these conjectural series.[13]
Early Modern natural history
While the
Histoire raisonnée
The histoire raisonnée was a genre of historical writing developed in France in the 17th century, with concerns for the individual in social context, and the description of culture and customs as integral to history. It grew out of humanist historiography with its close relationship to classical Roman and Greek models, but brought to the surface social matters, in particular as they could explain the motivations of individuals. With Géraud de Cordemoy there came an interest in causality as playing a part in historical movement, as distinct from the humanist acceptance of personal fates being subject to Fortune.[15]
Stadial history
Contemporary terminology is stadial history, or in other words the discussion of stages of society by theoretical means (see
Some basic conjectural history on
Conjectural histories of language and writing
Adam Smith in lectures on rhetoric, given from 1748,[20] advanced a speculative history of language; he wrote that he had been prompted by a 1747 work of Gabriel Girard. He was then interested in our awareness of literary style.[21] This is the example that Dugald Stewart took up in coining the phrase "conjectural history". Elements would have been recognised at the time as drawing on the Bible, and in classical literature Lucretius; it is now considered Smith was influenced by Montesquieu on law and government. The theory on language and its typology over time has been seen as typical of Smith's historical approach; and even the foundation of his later well-known work on political economy. Caveats have also been entered, by David Raphael: it cannot be stretched to Smith's history of astronomy; and the term can be seen as a misnomer.[22][23]
Monboddo, on the other hand, wrote at length a conjectural history of language because he emphasised the history of
The four stages theory
The term "conjectural history" was not generally accepted in Stewart's time.[26] There was an orthodox four stages theory of society, the stages being:
- hunting;
- pasturage;
- agriculture; and
- commerce.
This ladder-like ordering was taken to be a strict, linear progression, or unilineal evolution. Some economic determinism applied, in the sense that the baseline of subsistence was assumed to have a serious effect on social matters. The stages were supposed to represent progress on a moral level, as well as that of economic complexity. French as well as Scottish Enlightenment writers subscribed to such a pattern.[27]
The invention of this type of theory (three or four stages) is attributed to a number of European writers from the 1750s onwards, such as Adam Smith,
Representative works
Besides Adam Smith, prominent Scottish authors in the field of conjectural history included
Adam Ferguson, An Essay on the History of Civil Society (1767)
Ferguson in this work attempted a rigorous identification of the hunter stage with the so-called
John Millar, Observations concerning the Distinction of Ranks in Society (1771)
Millar argued in terms of a "system of manners" associated with each of the four stages.[37] He also discussed the advance of freedom, and denounced slavery.[38] As property became more complex, it followed that government did so also.[39] Poovey states that this work makes apparent the relationship of conjectural history with the experimental moral philosophy of Thomas Reid and George Turnbull.[40]
Lord Kames, Sketches of the History of Man (1774)
Kames has been called the leader of Scottish conjectural history, and had objections he expressed in correspondence to both Rousseau and the approach of Montesquieu, as reducing the role of human nature, which he thought was not a constant but the goal of the investigation.[11] The connection was that conjectural history was to be used as a framework of a discussion of natural law.[26] In writing to Basel in search of a suitable opponent to Rousseau, Kames prompted a work from Isaak Iselin, Ueber die Geschichte der Menschheit (1764), which is also a conjectural history.[11][41]
The Sketches was a collection of essays on social, cultural and political topics.
Later developments
The tradition comes to an end
Mainstream conjectural and philosophical history, in the Scottish style, hardly survived as a living tradition into the 1790s. Works went out of print; younger authors such as
Where stadial theory appeared in later authors, the original thrust was distorted.[50] Hopfl has said that the heirs were James Mill, John Stuart Mill, and Auguste Comte.[54] Hawthorne writes instead of the historical/sociological insights of the Scots being lost in the British context, despite the "tension between a 'natural' account of civil society and a developing sense of the factual importance and moral difficulties of individualism" having become apparent, to utilitarianism and vaguer evolutionism.[55]
Religious opposition
The Encyclopædia Britannica, in its
Relationship to antiquarianism
Conjectural argument had a bad name in 18th century British
Conjectural history of peoples
"Scottish orientalism"
References
- Margaret T. Hodgen (1971). Early Anthropology in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries. University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 978-0-8122-1014-9.
- H. M. Hopfl, From Savage to Scotsman: Conjectural History in the Scottish Enlightenment, Journal of British Studies Vol. 17, No. 2 (Spring, 1978), pp. 19–40. Published by: The University of Chicago Press on behalf of The North American Conference on British Studies. Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/175389
- Phyllis K. Leffler, The "Histoire Raisonnee," 1660–1720: A Pre-Enlightenment Genre, Journal of the History of Ideas Vol. 37, No. 2 (Apr. - Jun., 1976), pp. 219–240. Published by: University of Pennsylvania Press. Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/2708822
- Robert Nisbet and Gustavo Costa, Vico and the Idea of Progress, Social Research Vol. 43, No. 3, Vico and Contemporary Thought—1 (Autumn 1976), pp. 625–639. Published by: The New School. Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/40970245
- ISBN 978-0-521-79760-3.
- Rosemary Sweet (2004). Antiquaries: The Discovery of the Part in Eighteenth-Century Britain. Hambledon & London. ISBN 978-1-85285-309-9.
Notes
- ISBN 978-0-19-159117-4. Retrieved 4 March 2013.
- ISBN 978-1-903900-34-5. Retrieved 1 March 2013.
- ISBN 978-0-87413-829-0. Retrieved 2 March 2013.
- ^ Nisbet and Costa, p. 629.
- ISBN 978-1-4008-2362-8. Retrieved 3 March 2013.
- ISBN 978-0-19-820669-9. Retrieved 2 March 2013.
- ^ Broadie, Alexander. "Scottish Philosophy in the 18th Century". In Zalta, Edward N. (ed.). Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
- ISBN 978-0-86241-738-3.
- ISBN 978-1-4008-2362-8. Retrieved 2 March 2013.
- ^ Pocock, p. 305.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-674-02617-9. Retrieved 2 March 2013.
- ISBN 978-0-203-45803-7. Retrieved 1 March 2013.
- ^ Hodgen, p. 467.
- ISBN 978-1-134-97751-2. Retrieved 4 March 2013.
- ^ Leffler, pp. 223–9.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-134-60784-6. Retrieved 2 March 2013.
- ISBN 978-0-674-01038-3. Retrieved 4 March 2013.
- ISBN 978-1-4094-2115-3. Retrieved 2 March 2013.
- ^ Hopfl, pp. 24–5.
- ISBN 978-0-19-161394-4.
- ISBN 978-0-7914-8262-9.
- ISBN 978-0-19-161394-4.
- ISBN 978-1-139-44085-1.
- ISBN 978-1-4008-2362-8.
- ISBN 978-0-8047-4693-9.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-521-46533-5. Retrieved 1 March 2013.
- ISBN 978-0-674-63779-5. Retrieved 1 March 2013.
- ISBN 978-0-520-92592-2. Retrieved 1 March 2013.
- ISBN 978-0-521-77924-1. Retrieved 2 March 2013.
- ISBN 978-0-19-964243-4. Retrieved 1 March 2013.
- ISBN 978-0-7486-0319-0.
- ISBN 978-0-7486-3780-5. Retrieved 1 March 2013.
- ISBN 978-0-521-00323-0. Retrieved 1 March 2013.
- ^ Hopfl, p. 21.
- ^ Pocock, pp. 330–5.
- ^ Hopfl, p. 30.
- ISBN 978-0-226-10109-5. Retrieved 2 March 2013.
- ISBN 978-963-9776-14-2. Retrieved 2 March 2013.
- ISBN 978-0-14-025028-2.
- ISBN 978-0-226-67525-1. Retrieved 2 March 2013.
- ISBN 978-0-521-86743-6. Retrieved 2 March 2013.
- ISBN 978-0-415-44524-5. Retrieved 2 March 2013.
- ISBN 978-0-203-45803-7. Retrieved 2 March 2013.
- ISBN 978-1-57181-143-1. Retrieved 2 March 2013.
- ISBN 978-1-85109-448-6. Retrieved 2 March 2013.
- ISBN 978-0-691-12598-5. Retrieved 2 March 2013.
- ISBN 978-0-299-17450-7. Retrieved 2 March 2013.
- ISBN 978-0-226-67525-1. Retrieved 2 March 2013.
- ISBN 978-0-415-08104-7. Retrieved 4 March 2013.
- ^ ISBN 978-3-8258-7427-8. Retrieved 3 March 2013.
- ISBN 978-1-4008-2362-8. Retrieved 4 March 2013.
- ISBN 978-0-19-159117-4. Retrieved 4 March 2013.
- ISBN 978-0-521-04393-9. Retrieved 4 March 2013.
- ^ Hopfl, p. 32.
- ISBN 978-0-521-33721-2.
- ISBN 978-88-16-72039-8. Retrieved 4 March 2013.
- ISBN 978-90-5201-650-4. Retrieved 4 March 2013.
- ^ a b Sweet, pp. 20–3.
- ISBN 978-0-19-820669-9. Retrieved 3 March 2013.
- ISBN 978-0-7735-7124-2. Retrieved 4 March 2013.
- ISBN 978-0-85115-853-2. Retrieved 5 March 2013.