Editing Scottish Enlightenment (section)

===Sociology and anthropology===
Scottish Enlightenment thinkers developed what leading thinkers such as [[James Burnett, Lord Monboddo]] (1714–99) and Lord Kames called a ''[[science of man]]'',<ref name="Magnusson">{{cite web|url=http://www.newstatesman.com/200311100040 |title=Northern lights |author=Magnus Magnusson |work=[[New Statesman]] |publisher=Review of [[James Buchan]]'s Capital of the Mind: Edinburgh (Crowded With Genius: Edinburgh's Moment of the Mind in the [[United States]]) [[London]]: [[John Murray (publishing house)|John Murray]] ISBN 0-7195-5446-2 |date=10 November 2003 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120329124427/http://www.newstatesman.com/200311100040 |archive-date=March 29, 2012 |author-link=Magnus Magnusson }}</ref> which was expressed historically in the work of thinkers such as [[James Burnett, Lord Monboddo|James Burnett]], [[Adam Ferguson]], [[John Millar (philosopher)|John Millar]], [[William Robertson (historian)|William Robertson]] and [[John Walker (natural historian)|John Walker]], all of whom merged a scientific study of how humans behave in ancient and primitive cultures, with an awareness of the determining forces of [[modernity]]. Modern notions of visual anthropology permeated the lectures of leading Scottish academics like [[Hugh Blair]],<ref>{{cite journal|last=Eddy|first=Matthew Daniel|title=The Line of Reason: Hugh Blair, Spatiality and the Progressive Structure of Language|journal=Notes and Records of the Royal Society|year=2011|volume=65|pages=9–24|doi=10.1098/rsnr.2010.0098|s2cid=190700715}}</ref> and Alan Swingewood argues that modern sociology largely originated in Scotland.<ref>Alan Swingewood, "Origins of Sociology: the Case of the Scottish Enlightenment," ''The British Journal of Sociology'', Vol. 21, No. 2 (June 1970), pp. 164–80 [https://www.jstor.org/pss/588406 in JSTOR]</ref> [[James Burnett, Lord Monboddo|James Burnett]] is most famous today as a founder of modern comparative historical [[linguistics]]. He was the first major figure to argue that mankind had evolved language skills in response to his changing environment and social structures.<ref name=Hobbs>C. Hobbs, ''Rhetoric on the Margins of Modernity: Vico, Condillac, Monboddo'' (SIU Press, 2002), {{ISBN|978-0-8093-2469-9}}.</ref> He was one of a number of scholars involved in the development of early concepts of [[evolution]] and has been credited with anticipating in principle the idea of [[natural selection]] that was developed into a [[theory|scientific theory]] by [[Charles Darwin]] and Alfred Russel Wallace.<ref>P. J. Bowler, ''Evolution: the History of an Idea'' (Berkeley CA: University of California Press, 1989), {{ISBN|978-0-520-06386-0}}, p. 51.</ref>