Adam Ferguson and the Idea of Civil Society
Moral Science in the Scottish Enlightenment
- The first monograph explicitly devoted to the idea of civil society in the work of Adam Ferguson – its earliest British exponent
- Places civil society at the heart of a study of Ferguson’s methodology of social science
- Contributes to the history and understanding of a key concept in contemporary social and political thinking
- Challenges the existing interpretations of Ferguson as a sceptic about commercial modernity who was more of an old-fashioned stoic or republican moralist than a fully signed up member of the Scottish Enlightenment
Adam Ferguson, a friend of David Hume and Adam Smith, was among the leading Scottish Enlightenment figures who worked to develop a science of man. He created a methodology for moral science that combined empirically based social theory with normative moralising. He was among the first in the English-speaking world to make use of the terms civilization, civil society and political science.
Craig Smith explores Ferguson's thought, and examines his attempt to develop a genuine moral science and its place in providing a secure basis for the virtuous education of the new elite of Hanoverian Britain. The Ferguson that emerges is far from the stereotyped image of a republican sceptical about commercial society and much closer to the mainstream of the Scottish Enlightenment and its defence of the new British commercial order.
Preface
List of Ferguson’s Works
1. Introduction
2. Moral Science
3. Moral Philosophy
4. Moral Education
5. Civil Society and Civilisation
6. Civilised Warfare
Bibliography
A penetrating analysis of Ferguson's moral thought (including science, philosophy, and education), building on a mastery of the primary and secondary literature and a commitment to treat Ferguson's body of writing comprehensively and on its own highly eclectic terms.
Indeed, Adam Ferguson and the Idea of Civil Society is the best introduction to Ferguson’s work published to date, for it covers the full range of his published and unpublished writings and functions as a helpful guide to the secondary literature.
