Nick Phillipson's mother's family had been Quakers.  His mother herself had lapsed.  But apparently a spinster aunt of his still practised.  Nick remembers going to his aunt's place on set occasions and having to provide his aunt with the "right answers" to her questions.  Not participating was not an option; compliance earned him a package of Mentos. Scotch philosophy and Quaker Oats? I was not quite sure what Nick was driving at when he told me this story.  As a kid growing up in Canada I remember the cheerful, rosy cheeked man with long white hair and a black hat on boxes of Quaker Oats. One never knows about such mythical men, of which there are many.  Ronald McDonald, Captain Highliner, and so on. I imagined Nick as a Quaker, standing in a meeting hall of friends when the spirit moved him.  Too much incongruity.  Whoever I imagined, it definitely wasn't Nick. A collector of sermons I decided to practise my "active listening"...

When Nick Phillipson died earlier this year he left unfinished a book on the early modern (16th to 18th century) "Science of Man" project.  Phillipson, an Emeritus Professor of History from the University of Edinburgh, enjoyed well deserved success for eminently readable page turner intellectual biographies of David Hume and Adam Smith.  He lived and breathed Scottish Enlightenment philosophy, and generously shared his enthusiasm with colleagues, visiting scholars, research students (postgraduates), and undergraduates alike for 50 years.  When Adam Smith died, he left on the anvil, and gave orders to be burned, his own great attempt at a Science of Man.  I attempt to provide some hints of what Phillipson's unfinished project may have contained.  I have not personally seen his drafts or notes, but did speak with him about the matter on the telephone before he died. Edinburgh 30 years ago I first came into contact with Dr. Phillipson in the Winter of 1989/90...