Author Description

In Lectures On Human Nature, Samuel Doak lays out a basic philosophy of human nature, likely influenced by Scottish common sense realism. Topics such as beauty, esteem, mind, man as a social creature, reason, memory, the will, and passions, are all touched on with Doak’s signature clarity and brevity. Doak was an early American Presbyterian (1749 - 1830), serving as a church-planter and missionary, a pastor, a school-founder, a teacher, and briefly as a delegate to the short-lived State of Franklin. He was hailed as the Apostle of East Tennessee, and is also known for preaching a sermon (included in the book) to the Overmountain Men prior to their victory at King’s Mountain in the Revolutionary War. The book also includes an essay on life by John W. Doak.