Similar to many other regions of Western Europe, the Enlightenment era greatly affected the social, cultural, and political aspects of life in Scotland. In particular, the concept of “useful knowledge” was a significant term that many Scottish thinkers of the 18th century frequently used in their writings and presentations. In the work of most Scottish thinkers of the time, humanity’s pursuit of knowledge and its use in practical ways was viewed as a universal possibility in all societies. Among the prominent Scottish thinkers of the enlightenment era, Adam Ferguson, John Millar, William Robertson, and Henry Home, the origin of history, its purpose, and its use in a civil society became a legal aspect.
Within this broad discussion, the thinkers of the Scottish Enlightenment considered the stages of community through theoretical means known as “stadial theory” or “stadial history.” This concept, as an innovation, was based on the “four stages theory” of society. The theory stated that four stages of social development were involved in transforming human communities from “savages” to “civilized societies”- hunting, pasturage, agriculture, and commerce. As evidenced by the arguments of the Scottish Enlightenment era, the radial history of knowledge requires a constellation of historical and social conditions to transform societies.
There was a standard view of the types of society that could properly cultivate helpful knowledge and achieve social transformations. A constellation of historical and social conditions was a prerequisite and a necessity for a society to transform. First, as Smith puts it, division of labor was necessary for a society to cultivate practical knowledge properly. Henry Home notes that the division of labor would create a class of people who were able to use knowledge to gain freedom from the luxury and depression of bodily work.
Secondly, it was necessary to possess private property, whose role was to guarantee political stability. Ferguson argues that when society had personal property and settlement, it would invent. This was a form of ingenuity that involved practice and study of both science and arts. Adam Smith further stresses the need for the invention of the art of printing and public discourse as factors that would improve and enhance the communication of knowledge between groups of people.
The Scottish enlightenment era thinkers believed that the social transformation from hunting to commerce was a strict, linear, and unilineal ladder-like process or evolution. Moreover, they believed that the fundamental components distinguishing societies were not based on accidents of race, religion, or climate. Instead, the Scottish thinkers viewed that the psychological, social, cultural, and legal effects of the history of property and sustenance relations contributed to the progress.
According to the radial history of social transformation, all societies, regardless of race, religion, and climatic conditions, must pass through the four radial stages. First, in the hunting stage, a society involves hunting and gathering, and the property only extends to what an individual can carry, making ‘savagery’ the way of life. Then, a society transforms into pastoralism, which involves the development of animal husbandry and “necessitates barbarism.” Third, the agriculture stage in radial history involves settlement and the use of land as property for the production of sustenance, which resulted in civilization. The final stage involved turning to commerce, a contemporary way of life achieved initially in Europe.
Borrowing from the radial theory, various Scottish thinkers expanded anthropology in the enlightenment era by studying how human societies exist and the roles individuals and groups assume with time. In his book “The Origin of the Distinction of Ranks,” John Millar argues that as society progresses, the nature of authority changes in agriculture, subsistence, arts, commerce, and manufacture. In how writings, Millar argues that the natural law dictates the division of domestic duties, identifying the roles of women, children, and servants. Similarly, the progress of manufacturing and arts brought about stability in authority, with a reduced rate of violence and increased diversity of ranks.
Similarly, the stadial history has been applied to explain or provide a background on how modern societies develop, including the existence of empires. For instance, Emma Rothschild’s book “The inner life of empires” attempts to explain the changing social systems and their impacts on individuals, families, groups, and society. Rothschild used the example of the Johnstone family in the British Empire in the 19th century. The family lives on different continents within the British Empire, where they are used as a reflection of the social systems and practices of the time. The radial theory suggested by Smith and other Scottish thinkers of the enlightenment era is reflected in Rothschild’s writings.
Back in Europe, the Johnston family witnessed the extent of diversification of roles, such as writers, teachers, scientists, scribes, rulers, merchants, servants, and others. In the Americas, Australia, and Asia, the family lives with different societal role players, including governors, slave owners, slaves, and even criminals. From the writings by Rothschild, it is clear that the idea is to expand the stadial history to show how societies transform beyond the commerce stage suggested by the Scottish thinker as the end of social transformation through knowledge use and acquisition. Rothschild’s writings show that societies continue to evolve psychologically, politically, economically, socially, and mentally. Furthermore, it demonstrates the life in the empire when the distinctions between private and public, slavery and servitude, and home and overseas constantly fluctuated.
From this analysis, it is clear that a collection of historical and social conditions is necessary to transform a society continuously. In the early period of social transformations, private and public property, division of labor and roles, and authority were necessary factors to drive the change. Nevertheless, as societies became more settled and commercial, the transformation continued as they expanded to include more roles for different groups of individuals. Rothschild’s work raises the views of the 19th century Scottish thinkers like Hume, Smith, Adam, and others to show how the European empires expanded and progressed even after reaching the final stage in the stadial theory.