James Mccosh

The supernatural was an intellectual preoccupation for Scottish philosopher, theologian and later President of Princeton University James McCosh (1811–94), who attacked John Stuart Mill's 1843 System of Logic (also reissued in this series) for not addressing the issue of the supernatural. In this work, published in 1862, McCosh gives his full attention to the question, saying his aim was to 'disentangle the confusion' about the relationship between the natural and supernatural. He defines the supernatural as anything acting outside the sphere of nature. The first part of the book examines the natural world's relationship to the supernatural through a discussion of the laws and principles that are thought to govern nature. The second part takes the opposite approach, considering the relationship of the supernatural to the natural by examining instances within Christian literature, such as prophecy and miracles, which are difficult to explain.

James McCosh (1811–94), the Scottish philosopher, graduated from the University of Glasgow, spent some time as a minister in the Church of Scotland but then returned to philosophy and spent most of his career at Princeton University. The eighteenth-century Scottish Enlightenment had many influential philosophers at its core. In this book, first published in 1875, McCosh outlines the theories of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century philosophers and identifies Scottish philosophy as a distinct school of thought. He summarises both the merits and the possible criticisms of each philosopher's work and also gives detailed biographical information. Among the philosophers discussed are the influential David Hume, Thomas Reid and Adam Smith. The final chapter focuses on Sir William Hamilton, a philosopher who greatly influenced McCosh (whose other works, The Religious Aspect of Evolution and The Method of the Divine Government are also reissued in this series).