Libertà e Ragione: connessioni e parallelismi tra illuministi lombardi e scozzesi sulla strada della modernità

The Lombard Enlightenment was born and developed in a political context dominated by enlightened despotism, very different from the liberal constitutionalism in which shows the Scottish Enlightenment. Yet it is possible to find the existence of connections and influences among the greatest exponents of the two schools, while keeping in mind the different weight they had in the evolution of intellectual history. Individual freedom, critical thinking, empiricism, utilitarianism, humanitarianism are common elements in these two strands of the Enlightenment. The spirit of service to the community that should always inspire the actions of public authorities, the function of State and law in support of human progress, are the concepts that contemporary world is tributary to the Enlightenment, in all its various anime. Having demonstrated the basic features of the Lombard Enlightenment and international relations that some of its members had established, the article tries to discern similarities and differences between the cornerstones of political, legal and economic theories by Hume, Smith, Verri and Beccaria, especially with the aim of highlighting the importance that took their works on the road to modernity of nations.