Making Civil Society Work: the «Scottish Moralists» and the Cultural Foundations of Modernity

Abstract

The article outlines the importance of civil society in the philosophical discourse of modernity from the perspective of the Scottish Moralists’ insights into the cultural foundations of interpersonal trust conceived as an essential element of civic virtue. The importance of civil society springs from its dissimilarity with reference to the discourses of free markets and political hierarches. Hence, the notion may be associated with the modern conception of the citizen conceived as an individual shrouded in reciprocity (homo reciprocus).