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Canadian Political Science Association2024 Annual Conference Programme
Approaches, Knowledges, and Methods
for the World of Tomorrow
Hosted at McGill University
June 12 to June 14, 20242024 Annual Conference Programme
Approaches, Knowledges, and Methods
for the World of Tomorrow
Hosted at McGill University
June 12 to June 14, 2024
Political Theory
H21(a) - Author Meets Critics: Moderate Liberalism and the Scottish Enlightenment: Montesquieu, Hume, Smith and Ferguson by Constantine Christos Vassiliou
Date: Jun 14 | Time: 03:30pm to 05:00pm | Location: 680 Sherbrooke St. West 1085
Chair/Président/Présidente : Rebecca Kingston (University of Toronto)
Lindsay Mahon Rathnam (Duke Kunshan University)Emma Planinc (University of Notre Dame)
Lee Ward (Baylor University)
Catherine Power (York University-Glendon)
Abstract: Constantine Vassiliou's book, Moderate Liberalism and the Scottish Enlightenment: Montesquieu, Hume, Smith and Ferguson, responds to a perennial problem in political theory: how to balance commercial considerations with the public good. It investigates this dilemma through the lenses of Enlightenment thinkers whose liberal theories responded to the hazards of commercial innovation during early capitalism. Vassiliou argues that Montesquieu and his Scottish counterparts represent a moderate perspective in foundational liberal thought, emphasizing the critical importance of honour. He shows how their respective liberal theories uniquely channel human beings’ desire for honour to nourish a sense of interpersonal magnanimity within an inward-looking commercial world. In an age of polarized extremes, we have witnessed restive democracies flirting with illiberal responses for managing the hazards of capitalist innovation. Vassiliou shows how Montesquieu and his Scottish counterparts offer us more viable, middle-ground prescriptions which are sensitive to the emotional constitution of a liberal society. The book recaptures a conceptual space in the famous eighteenth-century commerce and virtue debates. Vassiliou presents Montesquieu as a pivotal figure in these debates whose theoretical assessment of commerce made him a powerful interlocutor with his Scottish contemporaries. Montesquieu was a promoter of commerce who nonetheless observed how it could become a handmaid of despotism if left unchecked. Throughout the book, Vassiliou compares Montesquieu to Hume, Smith, and Ferguson, on questions concerning commerce, liberty, and the role of religion in market society to highlight how their theories uniquely aimed to accommodate virtue in a society preoccupied with self-interested commerce.