The Scottish scholar James McCosh (1811 94) was a champion of the Free church, a successful and much-published philosophy professor at Belfast for 16 years, and an energetic and innovative President of Princeton University from 1868 to 1888. The Religious Aspect of Evolution was published in 1888, and this second edition from 1890 took account of A. R. Wallace's latest work, Darwinism (1889, also reissued in this series). McCosh, who already in Ireland had developed a 'theory of the universe conditioned by Christian revelation' was one of very few clergymen in America who defended evolutionary theory. He impressed upon his students that while there seemed to be great truth in Darwin's theory, the work of the coming age must be to separate that truth from the error springing up around it. This would enable scholars to follow and even embrace science while also retaining their faith in the Bible.

This 1850 edition of The Method of The Divine Government is the Scottish philosopher and clergyman James McCosh's influential account of how God's providence, which in his opinion is an unquestionable fact, governs the world in both a physical (external) and in a moral (internal) sense. The latter is particularly connected to the many layers that make up man's conscience. This second edition, which consists of four parts ('books') and an appendix, differs from the original version as McCosh pays far more attention to first principles than to fundamental ones. He seeks to pinpoint God's character and probes the depths of man's conscience (First Book) and in the following he delves into the physical aspects of God's government, paying particular attention to Comte's Positivism. McCosh devotes part three to a detailed analysis of the human mind and moral nature and finally in the fourth part he reconciles God and man.

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).

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