Lord Kames Henry Home – författare

Elements of Criticism (1762) is a philosophical work by Henry Home, Lord Kames. Published at the height of his career as a leading legal and cultural figure of the Scottish Enlightenment, Elements of Criticism has been credited as a crucial academic work in the development of modern English literary studies. “The science of criticism tends to improve the heart not less than the understanding…A just taste in the fine arts, by sweetening and harmonizing the temper, is a strong antidote to the turbulence of passion and violence of pursuit. Elegance of taste procures to a man so much enjoyment at home, or easily within reach, that in order to be occupied, he is, in youth, under no temptation to precipitate into hunting, gaming, drinking; nor, in middle age, to deliver himself over to ambition; nor, in old age, to avarice.” Although he is largely unheard of today, Henry Home was an integral figure in the elevation of the art of literary criticism as a subject in universities around Britain and the world. His central thesis is that criticism itself stems from the senses and directly relates to humanity’s capacity for reason. Through art, Home believed, humanity could live both morally and in harmony with the natural world, thereby creating a civilization rooted in virtue and creativity. This edition of Henry Home, Lord Kames’ Elements of Criticism is a classic of English literature reimagined for modern readers.

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Elements of Criticism is Kames’s most influential work. When it first appeared, in 1762, it was the most comprehensive philosophical work on “criticism” in English, and it was published in five editions during Kames’s lifetime and another forty editions over the next century. In America, Elements of Criticism served as a standard text for college students of English.

Liberty Fund’s edition of Elements of Criticism is the first modern edition of one of Kames’s most influential works. In Elements, Kames sets out his argument that the “science of criticism” is a “rational science;” it is “a subject of reasoning as well as of taste.” Volume one explores the nature and causes of the emotions and passions. Volume two delineates principles of rhetoric and literary appreciation, ending with a discussion of the formation of a standard of taste. Kames illustrated both volumes with a vast range of examples from classical literature and the arts of his own day.

Henry Home, Lord Kames (1696–1782) was one of the leaders of the Scottish Enlightenment.

Peter Jones is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the University of Edinburgh.

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Henry Home, Lord Kames, was the complete “Enlightenment man,” concerned with the full spectrum of human knowleEAe and its social use. However, as a lawyer and, after 1752, as a juEAe on the Court of Session in Edinburgh, he made many of his most distinctive contributions through his works on the nature of law and legal development.

Principles of Equity, first published in 1760, is considered his most lasting contribution to jurisprudence and is still cited. In his jurisprudence, Kames specifically sought to explain the distinction between the nature of equity and common law and to address related questions, such as whether equity should be bound by rules and whether there should be separate courts of law and equity.

Beginning with a general introduction on the rise and nature of equity, Principles of Equity is divided into three books. The first two, “theoretical,” books examine the powers of a court of equity as derived from justice and from utility, the two great principles Kames felt governed equity. The third book aims to be more practical, showing the application of these powers to several subjects, such as bankrupts. Kames drew his illustrations of the principles of equity from the case law of the Court of Session as well as the English Chancery, both because he felt that the rules of equity must be the same in every country where law was cultivated, and because he hoped his work might promote a closer union between the law of the two kingdoms. Principles of Equityis significant as an example of the approach of an Enlightenment thinker to practical legal questions and as an early attempt to reduce law to principles. Kames himself saw this as his most important work, and scholars both of his theory and of the broader Scottish Enlightenment will find it gives essential insights into the thought of this central figure. There is evidence that this book was well known in the formative years of the United States and that both Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson were familiar with Kames’s treatise.

Henry Home, Lord Kames (1696–1762) was one of the leaders of the Scottish Enlightenment.

Michael Lobban is Professor of Legal History at Queen Mary, University of London.

Please note: This title is available as an ebook for purchase on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and iTunes.