Robert Wallace (1697-1771). Ideologia e utopia nell’illuminismo scozzese

This paper deals with the contribution of Rev. Robert Wallace to the development of an «enlightened public sphere» in XVIIIth century Scotland and highlights his reflections on the relationship between population growth, on the one hand, and social and moral improvement, on the other. Since Wallace strongly criticized the extremes of luxury and indigence, which were typical of that society, and envisioned a perfect government but was also a supporter of Hanoverian establishment and commercial society, the author argues that it is impossible to apply the classical categories of «Ideology» and «Utopia» to Wallace’s writings one-sidedly, or to place his theory in an «ideological grid». The paper concentrates on Wallace’s originality and stresses the interaction between Christian theology, moral view of society, rational approach to reality and open-mindedness which characterizes his thinking.