George Campbell

1719-1796 · Scottish · Philosophy of Rhetoric, Faculty Psychology, Philosophy of Language, Christian Evidences

Eloquence is that art or talent by which discourse is adapted to its end.

George Campbell was Principal of Marischal College in Aberdeen and a founding member of the Aberdeen Philosophical Society — the "Wise Club" — which met to examine David Hume's philosophy at close range. His two books both come out of that engagement: a reply to Hume on miracles, and a rhetoric built on the new science of the mind.

Topics George Campbell addresses

• the four ends of discourse
• the understanding
• the imagination
• the passions
• the will
• eloquence as adaptation to its end
• vivacity
• moral evidence
• intuitive evidence
• testimony as an original principle
• experience, analogy and chance
• the argument from miracles
• the reply to Hume
• reputable use
• national use
• present use
• the canons of verbal criticism
• grammatical purity
• perspicuity
• the connexion of argument and passion
• sympathy in the hearer
• the association of ideas
• the principles of translation
• biblical interpretation

Converse with George Campbell on Symposium. Every reply is grounded in George Campbell's own writing and cites the page it came from. The corpus is public-domain text.