Enlightened views

Scotland can create a new philosophical revolution to rival the achievements of David Hume, Adam Smith and others during the Scottish Enlightenment, says Jamie Cooke, the head of RSA Scotland.

Scotland has led the way for hundreds of years. It’ll not change. The only thing, though, is the education has gone down. After the war we had an enviable education system. A couple hundred years ago only those that wanted to learn did. Now we still have entrepreneurs even though our education is poor. Can you imagine what John Logie Baird, Henry Bell, John Smith etc could all have done if they had computers?

Isabell Mungall We are nowhere near living in the dark ages of the last millennia where people were outright persecuted and killed for having different beliefs in Scotland. The level of engagement in the Scottish referendum does not signify that people are open-minded and “philosophical”; there were people who voted with minimal thought on issues and voted solely on the basis of perceived race and national identity on both sides. It was hardly the philosophical thinking that could rival Hume, Smith or Newton, for example.

Robert Meechan Trying to take credit from something that was earned by our forebears two centuries and more ago. If they really want a true new Scottish Enlightenment, that took place within the Union, then start by reversing the practice, now some 50 years old, of de-skilling the populace and make education the “leading out” it’s meant to be, rather than the indoctrination it’s become.

John Mcnab