The Scottish Soul – from the outside

Skimming the books about Scandinavia got me thinking about how contemporary Scotland might look to an outsider. Of course, having lived for more than half of my adult life abroad does make me a bit of an outsider – what visits I’ve made to the country since 1990 have been short, with 2018 being the only time I spent a few weeks in it. I did. however, have the temerity to produce a little E-book after the September 2014 referendum - based on the posts in my blog as it followed the 2 year discussion which took place in Scotland about its future 

The Scandinavians attribute their good fortune to the “folk-school” tradition which started in Denmark in the 1840s and soon spread to their neighbours. And part of that reflected the German concept of “Bildung” – which is much wider than the british understanding of “education” as explained in this short article. The Danish schools were designed to help the rural poor develop the skills which would be useful to them as they developed their agricultural system and was very much about developing their character and identity as Danes. And that same commitment can be seen in contemporary Germany with the strong emphasis on industry and on the training sector which has almost the same status as universities. 

Of course, the Scots have long been proud of their democratic approach to education – with schools and universities having been open to talent for centuries. Indeed in the 15^th century, Scotland had 3 Universities to England’s 2 – and this increased by the end of the 16^th century to a numerical advantage of 5-2. There has been less reason in the last century to celebrate what one important book published in 1961 called “The Democratic Intellect” by Scottish philosopher and historian of ideas, George Davie, who followed up with “The Crisis of the Democratic Intellect” (1986). Broadly speaking, Davie is concerned with the relationship between ‘the experts’ and ‘the people’. He states his overall case towards the end of the second book: 

The words “democratic intellect” offer a twentieth-century formulation of an old problem. Does the control of a group (of whatever kind) belong, as of right, to the few (the experts) exclusively, and not at all to the ignorant many? Or are the many entitled to share the control, because the limited knowledge of the many, when it is pooled and critically restated through mutual discussion, provides a lay consensus capable of revealing certain of the limitations of interest in the experts’ point of view? Or thirdly it may be held that this consensus knowledge of the many entitles them to have full control, excluding the experts.7

This is the first of five books I have chosen to reveal Scotland’s soul. The other four I will unveil tomorrow – although I’ve just realised they are all non-fiction. I’ve actually read more (Scottish – and Irish) fiction than I tend to let on so I may need to let this run longer as one of the blog’s series.