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John Gregory on Human Nature, Happiness and Religious Devotion

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Religion and the Science of Human Nature in the Scottish Enlightenment

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Abstract

In his A Comparative View of the State and Faculties of Man (1765), John Gregory set out a well-observed account of the alternative effects of religious devotion and scepticism on happiness of humankind. Our natural religious propensities direct us to comforting devotional beliefs in the face of life’s difficulties; failing to pay attention to these aspects of our nature would make most of us unhappy. The opposite of devotion was scepticism, which was deleterious to the happiness of all aside from philosophers. Gregory criticised speculative theology on the same grounds. He was clearly in critical dialogue with Hume’s philosophical writings on religion within a shared framework of the “science of human nature,” but also contained a implied critique of the Moderates within the Church of Scotland.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    For a biography of Gregory see McCullough (1998a, pp. 15–171). See also McCullough (1998b) and Haakonssen (1997, Ch. 2).

  2. 2.

    Gregory (1767, p. xv, 1770, pp. 126–27). See also the summary in McCullough (1998a, pp. 149–58).

  3. 3.

    Gregory (1767, p. 4).

  4. 4.

    Gregory (1767, pp. 5, 95).

  5. 5.

    Gregory (1770, pp. 181–82).

  6. 6.

    Gregory (1770, pp. 181–82).

  7. 7.

    Gregory (1767, pp. 64, 194).

  8. 8.

    E.g. Gregory (1767, p. 5). Gregory added a hastily composed preface to subsequent editions of the Comparative View, partly in response to public comment that the work’s contents lacked a common theme. Here Gregory positioned his essays as investigations emerging out of recent “consideration of mankind in the progressive stages of society” and attempts of “uniting together the peculiar advantages of these several stages” (1767, p. xv). Despite this, notions of man as a progressive being or of progress through stages of society have no prominent role in the collection.

  9. 9.

    For a more detailed discussion of the historical context of Gregory’s Comparative View see Mills (2020a).

  10. 10.

    Gregory (1767, p. 194).

  11. 11.

    Gregory (1767, p. 235).

  12. 12.

    Gregory (1770, p. 63).

  13. 13.

    Gregory (1770, p. 63). Kames reiterated similar arguments in his Loose Hints, see Kames (1782, p. 242).

  14. 14.

    Beattie (1771, p. 528). I do not agree with interpretations, such as McCullough (1998a) and Haakonssen (1997 p. 50), that distance Gregory from Beattie’s vehemence. Gregory caught some flak for his well-known friendship with Beattie, but he not only sincerely believed but also actively encouraged his friend in both his arguments and his manner of arguing. See Mills (2020a) and (2020b).

  15. 15.

    Gregory (1767, pp. xi, x).

  16. 16.

    Blair’s Dissertation is discussed below in Appendix 1.

  17. 17.

    Gregory (1767, p. 198).

  18. 18.

    Gregory (1767, p. 236).

  19. 19.

    Gregory (1767, p. 198).

  20. 20.

    Gregory (1767, p. 199).

  21. 21.

    See also Haakonssen (1997, pp. 83–85).

  22. 22.

    Gregory (1767, p. 218).

  23. 23.

    Gregory (1767, p. 214).

  24. 24.

    On Witherspoon see Mailer (2017, esp. pp. 1–100).

  25. 25.

    Gregory (1767, p. 229).

  26. 26.

    For popular pushback against Moderatism see, for example, Brekke (2010).

  27. 27.

    See Mills (2015, 2020a, 2020b).

  28. 28.

    Gregory (1767, p. 212).

  29. 29.

    Gregory (1767, p. 222).

  30. 30.

    Gregory (1767, p. 222).

  31. 31.

    Gregory (1767, p. 233).

  32. 32.

    Gregory (1767, p. 222). The influence of Hume on Gregory’s understanding of human nature is argued for by McCullough (1998a, 1998b).

  33. 33.

    Gregory (1767, pp. 233–34).

  34. 34.

    Gregory (1767, p. 223).

  35. 35.

    Gregory (1767, p. 224).

  36. 36.

    Gregory (1767, p. 225).

  37. 37.

    Gregory (1770, p. 61).

  38. 38.

    Gregory (1767, p. 83).

  39. 39.

    Gregory (1767, p. 83).

  40. 40.

    Gregory (1767, pp. 215, 235).

  41. 41.

    Gregory (1767, p. 205).

  42. 42.

    Gregory (1767, p. 201).

  43. 43.

    Gregory (1767, p. 204).

  44. 44.

    As mentioned previously, it seems highly likely that, when arguing this point, Gregory had in mind the passage from Hume’s EHU where Hume noted that someone being tortured would be angered by supposedly comforting messages about the providential order of the universe. See EHU 8.34.

  45. 45.

    Gregory (1767, p. 210).

  46. 46.

    Gregory (1767, p. 207).

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Mills, R.J.W. (2023). John Gregory on Human Nature, Happiness and Religious Devotion. In: Religion and the Science of Human Nature in the Scottish Enlightenment. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-49031-6_10

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