New resources - CAHSS - 2021/2022

New Library resources for Philosophy, Psychology & Language Sciences

This page highlights new larger digital items and subscriptions acquired in 2021/22 which were requested by, or are relevant to, the School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences (PPLS).

The Academic Support Librarian for PPLS is Ishbel Leggat.

The Academic Library Representative for PPLS in 2022/2023 is Dr Inna Kupreeva.

We work in partnership with the CAHSS College Library & Information Strategy Committee.

 

Centre for Research Collections (CRC) - Recent Acquisitions Highlight

Franco-Scottish Scientific Relations in the Enlightenment

Handwritten text from an 18th century letter

Autograph letter signed from Colin Maclaurin to Jean-Jacques d'Ortous de Mairan, 5 February 1743; Coll-1848

Professor of Mathematics at the University of Edinburgh from 1725 to 1746, Colin Maclaurin was Scotland’s most important mathematician of the 18th century. He made major contributions to geometry and algebra and significantly raised the University’s international academic status.

In this letter, Maclaurin writes (in French) to Jean-Jacques d’Ortous de Mairan, Perpetual Secretary of the Académie des Sciences in Paris. He first discusses his key work, the Treatise of Fluxions (1742), a rigorous and systematic defence of Newtonian calculus. Maclaurin acknowledges that foreign readers might be surprised by his methodology but explains that he wished to meet potential scientific and philosophical objections from prominent British anti-Newtonians like Bishop Berkeley. Maclaurin goes on to enquire about a French geodetic expedition to Peru to establish whether the earth’s circumference was greater around the equator or around the poles. Finally, he reports on attempts to correct the geography of the North of Scotland and promises to send Mairan a newly engraved map of the country. Maclaurin believed that it was crucial to map the Scottish coastline accurately in view of a possible French-backed Jacobite invasion. Two years later, in 1745, Prince Charles Edward Stewart (‘Bonnie Prince Charlie’) landed with his followers in the Highlands. Maclaurin was put in charge of fortifying the city of Edinburgh against the approaching Jacobite army. He died a few months later of an illness provoked by his exertions.

“This rare letter encapsulates, for students and researchers, characteristics of Scottish science in the 1700s,” writes Dr Isobel Falconer, Reader in the School of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of St Andrews, “and it evidences the culture of exchange of gifts and results with Continental Europe, with the attendant practical difficulties, and portrays the dual roles of University Professors such as Maclaurin in academic questions – the shape of the Earth – and civic responsibility – mapping to improve oversight of the Highlands in the run up to the 1745 Jacobite rebellion.”

This letter is a vital record of Franco-Scottish scientific relations in the early decades of the Enlightenment. Autograph material by Maclaurin is of the greatest rarity on the market: this appears to be the first example to emerge in forty years. The CRC holds further correspondence from Maclaurin, student notes of his lectures, and a copy of his degree thesis written at the age of 16 (Coll-425, Coll-1812, Coll-38).

New Journals

ProQuest Access 350


In 2021/22 the Library extended it's subscription to ProQuest Access 350 until 31 July 2023.

These databases allow you to explore 600 years worth of world history and, along with the wide and varied range of digital primary source databases the Library already gives you access to, can help enrich your learning, teaching and research.

Find out more about ProQuest Access 350


Library subject guides for PPLS

You can explore the Library Subject Guides to find out about the full range of library resources for PPLS.