1868 – 1940
William Robert Scott (1868–1940) was a Scottish philosopher and historian of moral and economic thought, best known as the Adam Smith Professor of Political Economy at the University of Glasgow. He made significant contributions to the history of British moral philosophy, including editing and introducing Ralph Cudworth's work on objective moral truth. His philosophical interests centered on the objectivity of value in ethics and aesthetics, situating him within the tradition of British moral realism.
Edited and introduced Cudworth's Treatise Concerning Eternal and Immutable Morality, reviving Cambridge Platonist arguments for objective moral value
Defended the objectivity of moral and aesthetic excellence as properties of objects, not projections of subjective pleasure
Produced foundational historical scholarship on Adam Smith and the Scottish Enlightenment
Held the Adam Smith Chair of Political Economy at the University of Glasgow
Contributed to recovering and contextualizing early modern British moral philosophy