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Date: | Fri Mar 31 17:18:31 2006 |
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----------------- HES POSTING -----------------
Cool question!
For starters it is worth reading Hume's "Of National Characters" (it makes
for
uncomfortable reading, however) and "Of Refinement in the arts". Both
essays
are not very long and reprinted in Liberty Fund's cheap Essays, Moral,
Political, and Literary.
In Smith, besides the passages already mentioned, the student may want to
look
at Book V of Wealth of Nations, especially the discussion of national
defence
(V.i.a) and education (V.i.f-g).
Finally, the student may want to look at Adam Smith's "Letter to the
Editors of
the Edinburgh Review" (reprinted in Essays on Philosophic Subjects) in
which
Smith advocates taking a European (as opposed to a narrow national)
perspective
of literature and arts/sciences and about b) different national styles of
science/philosophy. This is also not very long.
I don't know of any secondary literature on this topic, although Donald
Winch's
1978 book may not be a bad place to start looking. (See also his essay on
cosmopolitianism in the Hont & Ignatieff volume.)
Eric Schliesser
University of Chicago
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