Origine e genesi dello Stato nel Settecento. L’anticontrattualismo scettico e realista degli illuministi scozzesi

Studies on eighteenth-century political thought have largely overlooked the foundations of the Scottish doctrine of the state, namely that body of theories, historical- philosophical arguments, and moral reflections concerned with the phase preceding economic and political analysis, on which contemporary historiography has instead extensively focused. Within this specific field of inquiry, the Scottish Enlightenment distinguished itself from other European traditions by conceiving the state not as the product of a rationalistic fiction, such as the original contract, but as the outcome of an evolutionary process rooted in history, custom, war, and the gradual stabilization of authority. This article focuses on this intellectual stance, which is grounded in a broader perspective of political skepticism, within which the critique of social contract theory takes the form of a rejection of abstract rationalistic constructions. By examining Hume, Ferguson, Ramsay, and Smith, the article shows how the Scottish Enlightenment explained political authority through historical experience, military conflict, unintended social processes, and the ordinary motives of obedience rather than through an original act of consent.