An Essay on the Nature and Immutability of Truth

An Essay on the Nature and Immutability of Truth is a 1770 book about truth by the Scottish philosopher and poet James Beattie. His major work, the book enjoyed great success but angered the philosopher David Hume and has been criticized for Beattie's tendency to denounce his opponents. Publication history An Essay on the Nature and Immutability of Truth was first published in 1770. A German translation appeared in 1772, and there were also French and Dutch translations. Reception An Essay on the Nature and Immutability of Truth enjoyed great success. It became a bestseller, made Beattie famous, and received the approbation of the writers Edmund Burke and Samuel Johnson. Beattie received numerous honors, including an audience with George III of the United Kingdom, who rewarded him with an annual pension, while the University of Oxford conferred on him the doctorate of civil law. Beattie also posed for the painter Joshua Reynolds. The work was discussed in continental Europe, where its German translation influenced the philosopher Immanuel Kant, helping him to understand Hume and aiding in the development of transcendental idealism. However, Hume reacted with anger to the work, and is said to have remarked of it, "Truth! there is no truth in it; it is a horrible large lie in octavo" and to have referred to Beattie as a "silly bigoted fellow". While it remains Beattie's best known philosophical work, neither its fame nor Beattie's philosophical reputation endured. The philosopher Dugald Stewart concluded in a letter to the writer William Forbes that while it was effective as a "popular antidote against the illusions of metaphysical scepticism" it lacked the subtlety, patience, and precision of Reid's work. The philosopher Frederick Copleston commented that Beattie "indulged in declamation and diatribe in passages which were doubtless the expression of sincere indignation but which seem rather out of place in a philosophical work." He concluded that Beattie, "tends to give the impression that he has very little use for philosophy except as a means of attacking philosophies and philosophers." The philosopher Patricia Kitcher described An Essay on the Nature and Immutability of Truth as Beattie's "major work".