Natural theology was one of the most important teaching in the academic curricula during the whole Scottish Enlightenment. One of the core topics was the demonstration of the existence of an intelligent ‘design’ or project of divine origin in the arrangement of the different parts of the natural world and of the sentient beings. This article aims at exploring how two of the most prominent figures of the Scottish common sense tradition, Thomas Reid and Dugald Stewart, dealt with this topic. While Reid was more interested in giving solid metaphysical foundation to the ‘argument from final causes’, Stewart pointed out the importance of final causes and the design argument for the advancement both of natural philosophy and the philosophy of the human mind. However, even with different goals, both authors maintained that the topic at stance was fundamental for the development and the attainment of moral virtues.
