Offering a study of the Scottish Enlightenment, this collection of essays deals with the period from 1730 to 1790 - one of the most important in Scotland's history. It was an age when many aspects of mankind's existence - philosophy, economics, art, law, architecture, medicine, engineering - were studied and questioned. It was also a time when Scotland's cities were hotbeds of genius, and Scotsmen such as the philosopher David Hume, the economist Adam Smith, the chemist James Black and the geologist James Hutton developed their ideas and successfully challenged the beliefs of the past.