Abstract

British philosophy in the eighteenth century was thoroughly unacademic. Its representatives were men of various professions, not professors . They aimed at a unified explanation of phenomena, both physical and moral, and the improvement of human affairs. They wrote for the general public and therefore preferred the easy style of the essay, letter or dialogue to the heavy bulk of the treatise. Their patterns of thought were set by Newton and Bacon, and among ancient philosophers it was Cicero to whom they felt most akin