Adam Ferguson

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Adam Ferguson
Scottish Common Sense Realism[1]
Scottish Enlightenment
InstitutionsUniversity of Edinburgh
Main interests
Sociology, political philosophy, ethics, history
Detail of Adam Ferguson's grave
The grave of Adam Ferguson, St Andrews Cathedral churchyard

Adam Ferguson,

philosopher and historian of the Scottish Enlightenment
.

Ferguson was sympathetic to traditional societies, such as the Highlands, for producing courage and loyalty. He criticized commercial society as making men weak, dishonourable and unconcerned for their community. Ferguson has been called "the father of modern sociology" for his contributions to the early development of the discipline.[2][3] His best-known work is his Essay on the History of Civil Society.

Biography

Born at

Gaelic, he gained appointment as deputy chaplain of the 43rd (afterwards the 42nd) regiment (the Black Watch), the licence to preach being granted him by special dispensation, although he had not completed the required six years of theological
study.

It remains a matter of debate as to whether, at the Battle of Fontenoy (1745), Ferguson fought in the ranks throughout the day, and refused to leave the field, though ordered to do so by his colonel. Nevertheless, he certainly did well, becoming principal chaplain in 1746. He continued attached to the regiment till 1754, when, disappointed at not obtaining a living, he left the clergy and resolved to devote himself to literary pursuits.

After residing in

moral philosophy
.

In 1767, he published his

Continent and met Voltaire. His membership of The Poker Club
is recorded in its minute book of 1776.

In 1776, appeared his anonymous pamphlet on the

British legislature. In 1778 Ferguson was appointed secretary to the Carlisle Peace Commission
which endeavoured, but without success, to negotiate an arrangement with the revolted colonies.

In 1780, he wrote the article "History" for the second edition of Encyclopædia Britannica.[6] The article is 40 pages long and replaced the article in the first edition, which was only one paragraph.

In 1783, appeared his

history of the Roman Republic during the period of their greatness formed a practical illustration of those ethical and political doctrines which he studied especially. The history reads well and impartially, and displays conscientious use of sources. The influence of the author's military experience shows itself in certain portions of the narrative. Tired of teaching, he resigned his professorship in 1785, and devoted himself to the revision of his lectures, which he published (1792) under the title of Principles of Moral and Political Science
.

In his seventieth year, Ferguson, intending to prepare a new edition of the history, visited

learned societies. From 1795 he resided successively at Neidpath Castle near Peebles, at Hallyards on Manor Water, and at St Andrews, where he died on 22 February 1816. He is buried in the churchyard of St Andrews Cathedral
, against the east wall. His large mural monument includes a carved profile portrait in marble.

Ethics

In his

human race, he placed the principle of moral approbation in the attainment of perfection. Victor Cousin
criticised Ferguson's speculations (see his Cours d'histoire de la philosophie morale an dix-huitième siècle, pt. II., 1839–1840):

We find in his method the wisdom and circumspection of the Scottish school, with something more masculine and decisive in the results. The principle of perfection is a new one, at once more rational and comprehensive than benevolence and sympathy, which in our view places Ferguson as a moralist above all his predecessors.

By this principle Ferguson attempted to reconcile all moral systems.[citation needed] With Thomas Hobbes and Hume he admits the power of self-interest or utility, and makes it enter into morals as the law of self-preservation. Francis Hutcheson's theory of universal benevolence and Adam Smith's idea of mutual sympathy (now empathy) he combines under the law of society. But, as these laws appear as the means rather than the end of human destiny, they remain subordinate to a supreme end, and the supreme end of perfection.[citation needed]

In the political part of his system Ferguson follows

Sir Leslie Stephen, English Thought in the Eighteenth Century, Cambridge University Press, 2011, p. 214). Ferguson shared his republican contemporaries' fear that imperial expansion would undermine the liberty of a state, but he saw representative institutions as a solution to the dangers posed by an expanding state.[7] He defended the British Empire, but argued that political representation was key to prevent it from becoming tyrannical.[7]

Social thought

Ferguson's An Essay on the History of Civil Society (1767) drew on classical authors and contemporary travel literature, to analyze modern commercial society with a critique of its abandonment of civic and communal virtues. Central themes in Ferguson's theory of citizenship are conflict, play, political participation and military valor. He emphasized the ability to put oneself in another's shoes, saying "fellow-feeling" was so much an "appurtenance of human nature" as to be a "characteristic of the species." Like his friends Adam Smith and David Hume as well as other Scottish intellectuals, he stressed the importance of the spontaneous order; that is, that coherent and even effective outcomes might result from the uncoordinated actions of many individuals.

Ferguson saw history as a two-tiered synthesis of natural history and social history, to which all humans belong. Natural history is created by

feminine, such as the constant desire to please, and to adopt less superficial qualities that suggested inner virtue and courtesy toward the 'fairer sex.'[8][9]

Ferguson was a leading advocate of the

Idea of Progress. He believed that the growth of a commercial society through the pursuit of individual self-interest could promote a self-sustaining progress. Yet paradoxically Ferguson also believed that such commercial growth could foster a decline in virtue and thus ultimately lead to a collapse similar to Rome's. Ferguson, a devout Presbyterian, resolved the apparent paradox by placing both developments in the context of a divinely ordained plan that mandated both progress and human free will. For Ferguson, the knowledge that humanity gains through its actions, even those actions resulting in temporary retrogression, form an intrinsic part of its progressive, asymptotic movement toward an ultimately unobtainable perfectibility.[10]

Ferguson was influenced by classical humanism and such writers as Tacitus, Niccolò Machiavelli, and Thomas Hobbes. The fellow members of Edinburgh's Select Society, which included David Hume and Adam Smith, were also major influences. Ferguson believed that civilization is largely about laws that restrict our independence as individuals but provide liberty in the sense of security and justice. He warned that social chaos usually leads to despotism. The members of civil society give up their liberty-as-autonomy, which savages possess, in exchange for liberty-as-security, or civil liberty. Montesquieu used a similar argument.[8]

Smith emphasized

Hegel and Marx.[8][9]

Adam Ferguson, previously working as a professor at the University of Edinburgh, became heavily involved in the American War of Independence, especially when asked to join the Carlisle commission which went to America in order to negotiate an agreement with Washington and the American congress. Once in America, Ferguson was appointed secretary of the commission. As this letter states, Ferguson was denied a passport and Washington was wary to make any decisions without the consent of congress beforehand. Ultimately, congress continued to ignore or deny requests from the commission until the party finally returned to Britain later that year. The letter is signed June 9: 1778, three days after the commission arrived in America.
Letter from George Washington to Doctor Adam Ferguson about the state of Sir Henry Clinton's request for a passport on his behalf. June 9, 1778

The Essay has been seen as an innovative attempt to reclaim the tradition of

American Founding Fathers.[8]

Personal life

He married Katherine Burnett in 1767.[11] Ferguson was first cousin, close friend and colleague to Joseph Black M.D and Katie Burnett was Black's niece.[12] They produced seven children the eldest Adam Ferguson (British Army officer) close friend to Sir Walter Scott, followed by James, Joseph, John, Isabella, Mary and Margaret.[13] John (John MacPherson Ferguson) was a Rear Admiral in the Royal Navy.[14]

Ferguson suffered an attack of paralysis in 1780 but fully recovered and became a vegetarian for the rest of his life.[15][16] Ferguson also abstained from alcoholic drink. He did not dine out unless with his first cousin and great friend Joseph Black.[17]

Main works

References

  1. ^ Selections from the Scottish Philosophy of Common Sense, ed. by G. A. Johnston (1915), essays by Thomas Reid, Adam Ferguson, James Beattie, and Dugald Stewart (online version).
  2. S2CID 143916665
    .
  3. ISBN 0669244597.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link
    )
  4. (PDF) on 4 October 2006. Retrieved 29 September 2010.
  5. ^ .
  6. ^ "Adam Ferguson | Scottish philosopher". Britannica.com. 16 June 2023.
  7. ^
    S2CID 246985898
    .
  8. ^ a b c d Kettler, The Social and Political Thought of Adam Ferguson (1965)
  9. ^ a b Herman, A., The Scottish Enlightenment, Harper Perennial
  10. ^ Hill (1997)
  11. ISBN 090219884X. Archived from the original
    (PDF) on 24 January 2013. Retrieved 29 April 2016.
  12. ^ Records of the Clan and Name Ferguson 1895 p. 138 note. 1
  13. ^ Records of the clan and name of Fergusson by D Douglas 1895 p. 144
  14. ^ Burkes peerage
  15. ^ James Ferguson. (1905). The Ferguson Family: In Scotland and America. The Times Presses. p. 28
  16. ^ Johnson, Edgar. (1970). Sir Walter Scott: 1771–1821. Hamish Hamilton. p. 61
  17. ^ Hamowy, Ronald (2006). Scottish Thought and the American Revolution: Adam Ferguson's Response to Richard Price. (David Womersely, ed., Liberty and American Experience in the Eighteenth Century). Liberty Fund. pp. Chapter. Retrieved 14 September 2011.

Sources

  •  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domainCousin, John William (1910). A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature. London: J. M. Dent & Sons – via Wikisource.
  • Articles in Dictionary of National Biography
  • OCLC 750831024
    .
  • .
  • Hill, Lisa. "Adam Ferguson and the Paradox of Progress and Decline," History of Political Thought 1997 18(4): 677–706
  • Kettler, David Adam Ferguson: His Social and Political Thought. New Brunswick: Transaction, 2005.
  • McDaniel, Iain. Adam Ferguson in the Scottish Enlightenment: The Roman Past and Europe's Future (Harvard University Press; 2013) 276 pages
  • McCosh, James, The Scottish philosophy, biographical, expository, critical, from Hutcheson to Hamilton (1875)
  • Oz-Salzberger, Fania. "Introduction" in Adam Ferguson, An Essay on the History of Civil Society, edited by F. Oz-Salzberger, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995
  • Oz-Salzberger, Fania. Translating the Enlightenment: Scottish Civic Discourse in Eighteenth-Century Germany, (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995)
  • Vileisis, Danga: Der unbekannte Beitrag Adam Fergusons zum materialistischen Geschichtsverständnis von
  • "Adam Ferguson" Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy 1998
  • Waszek, Norbert & Hauck, Eveline. "”In the human kind, the species has a progress as well as the individual”: Adam Ferguson on the progress of “mankind”", in: Humankind and Humanity in the Philosophy of the Enlightenment, ed. by Stefanie Buchenau & Ansgar Lyssy, London, Bloomsbury, 2023, p. 115-130.

Further reading

External links