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.