A discussion of sensibility, sensation, perception and painting,
Scotland and the Origins of Modern Art is an original work which
argues that the eighteenth-century Scottish philosophy of moral sense
played a central role in shaping ideas explored by figures such as
Cézanne and Monet over one hundred years later.
Proposing that sensibility not reason was the basis of morality, the
philosophy of moral sense gave birth to the idea of the supremacy of the
imagination. Allied to the belief that the imagination flourished more
freely in the primitive history of humanity, this idea became a potent
inspiration for artists. The author also highlights Thomas Reid's method
in his philosophy of common sense of using art and artists to illustrate
how perception and expression are intuitive. To be truly expressive,
artists should unlearn what they have learned and record their raw
sensations, rather than the perceptions that derive from them.
Exploring the work of key philosophical and artistic protagonists, this
thought-provoking book unearths the fascinating exchanges between art,
philosophy and literature during Enlightenment in Scotland that provided
the blueprint for modernism.
