View source for Adam Ferguson

{{Short description|Scottish philosopher and historian (1723–1816)}}
{{Other people}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2020}}
{{Infobox philosopher
| region           = [[Western philosophy]]
| era              = [[18th-century philosophy]]
| image            = ProfAdamFerguson.jpg
| caption          = Adam Ferguson as painted by [[Joshua Reynolds]] in 1782
| birth_date       = {{Birth date|df=yes|1723|6|20}}
| birth_place      = [[Logierait]], [[Perthshire]], [[Scotland]]
| death_date       = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1816|2|22|1723|6|20}}
| death_place      = [[St Andrews]], [[Fife]], [[Scotland]]
| school_tradition = [[Scottish Common Sense Realism]]<ref>''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 ([http://oll.libertyfund.org/index.php?option=com_staticxt&staticfile=show.php%3Ftitle=2044&Itemid=28 online version] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130603161133/http://oll.libertyfund.org/index.php?option=com_staticxt&staticfile=show.php%3Ftitle%3D2044&Itemid=28 |date=3 June 2013 }}).</ref><br />[[Scottish Enlightenment]]
| main_interests   = [[Sociology]], [[political philosophy]], [[ethics]], [[history]]
| alma_mater       = [[University of Edinburgh]]<br />[[University of St Andrews]]
| institutions     = [[University of Edinburgh]]
| notable_ideas    =
}}
[[File:Adam Ferguson as appearing on his grave.jpg|thumb|290px|Detail of Adam Ferguson's grave]]
[[File:The grave of Adam Ferguson, St Andrews Cathedral churchyard.jpg|thumb|290px|The grave of Adam Ferguson, St Andrews Cathedral churchyard]]
'''Adam Ferguson''', {{post-nominals|country=GBR|FRSE}} ([[Scottish Gaelic]]: ''Adhamh MacFhearghais''), also known as '''Ferguson of Raith''' (1 July [[Old Style and New Style dates|N.S.]]<ref>{{Cite web |title=Adam Ferguson – Philosopher and Historian {{!}} James Boswell |url=https://www.jamesboswell.info/biography/adam-ferguson-philosopher-historian |access-date=2024-08-25 |website=www.jamesboswell.info}}</ref> / 20 June O.S. 1723 – 22 February 1816), was a Scottish [[philosopher]] and [[historian]] of the [[Scottish Enlightenment]].

Ferguson was sympathetic to traditional societies, such as the [[Scottish Highlands|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.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Barnes|first1=Harry E.|title=Sociology Before Comte: A Summary of Doctrines and an Introduction to the Literature|journal=American Journal of Sociology|date=September 1917|volume=23|issue=2|pages=234|doi=10.1086/212733|jstor=2763534|s2cid=143916665}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book | first = William Bradford | last = Willcox |author2=Arnstein, Walter L. | edition=Sixth Edition, 1992 | title = The Age of Aristocracy, 1688 to 1830 | others=Volume III of A History of England, edited by Lacey Baldwin Smith | page = 133 | location=[[Lexington, MA]] | year = 1966 | isbn = 0669244597 }}</ref> His best-known work is his ''[[An Essay on the History of Civil Society|Essay on the History of Civil Society]]''.

==Life==
Born at [[Logierait]] in [[Atholl]], [[Perthshire]], Scotland, the son of Rev Adam Ferguson, he received his education at Logierait Parish School, [[Perth Grammar School]], and at the [[University of Edinburgh]] and the [[University of St Andrews]] (MA 1742).<ref name="Waterston">{{cite book
 |last1=Waterston
 |first1=Charles D
 |last2=Macmillan Shearer
 |first2=A
 |title=Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783–2002: Biographical Index
 |url=http://www.rse.org.uk/fellowship/fells_indexp1.pdf
 |access-date=29 September 2010
 |volume=I
 |year= 2006
 |publisher=[[The Royal Society of Edinburgh]]
 |location=Edinburgh
 |isbn=978-0902198845
 |url-status=dead
 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061004113545/http://www.rse.org.uk/fellowship/fells_indexp1.pdf
 |archive-date=4 October 2006
}}</ref> In 1745, owing to his knowledge of [[Scottish Gaelic language|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 [[theology|theological]] study.<ref>Blaikie, Andrew (2013), ''The Scots Imagination and Modern Memory'', [[Edinburgh University Press]], p. 35, {{isbn|978-0748617876}}</ref>

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 [[Leipzig]] for a time, he returned to [[Edinburgh]] where in January 1757 he succeeded [[David Hume]] as librarian to the [[Faculty of Advocates]] (see [[Advocates' Library]]), but soon relinquished this office on becoming tutor in the family of the [[Earl of Bute]].<ref name="Essay95">{{cite book|last=Adam|first=Ferguson|editor=Fania Oz-Saltberger|title=An Essay on the History of Civil Society|url=https://archive.org/details/anessayonhistor00ferggoog|year=1995|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=0521447364}}</ref>{{rp|xvi}} In 1759 Ferguson became professor of [[natural philosophy]] in the [[University of Edinburgh]], and in 1764 transferred to the chair of "pneumatics" ([[mental philosophy]]) and [[moral philosophy]].

In 1767 he published his ''[[Essay on the History of Civil Society]]'', which was well received and translated into several [[European languages]]. In the mid-1770s he travelled again to the [[European mainland|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 [[American Revolution]] in opposition to Dr [[Richard Price]]'s ''[[Observations on the Nature of Civil Liberty]]'', in which he sympathised with the views of the [[British legislature]]. In 1778 Ferguson was appointed secretary to the [[Carlisle Peace Commission]], which endeavoured, without success, to negotiate an arrangement with the revolted colonies.

In 1780 he wrote the article "History" for the second edition of [[Encyclopædia Britannica]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/204623/Adam-Ferguson|title = Adam Ferguson &#124; Scottish philosopher|website=Britannica.com| date=16 June 2023 }}</ref> The article, 40 pages long, replaced the article in the first edition, which was only one paragraph.

In 1783 appeared his ''[[History of the Progress and Termination of the Roman Republic]]'', which became very popular and went through several editions. Ferguson believed that the [[history of the Roman Republic]] in its period of greatness formed a practical illustration of the ethical and political doctrines which he especially studied. The history reads well and impartially, and displays conscientious use of sources. The influence of the author's military experience shows in portions of the narrative.

In 1785, tired of teaching, he resigned his professorship and devoted himself to revising his lectures, which he published in 1792 as ''[[Principles of Moral and Political Science]]''.

In his seventieth year Ferguson, intending to prepare a new edition of the history, visited Italy and some of the principal cities of Europe, where he was received with honour by [[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 [[ethical system]] Ferguson treats man as a social being, illustrating his doctrines by political examples. As a believer in the progression of the [[Human|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):

<blockquote>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.</blockquote>

By this principle Ferguson attempted to reconcile all moral systems.{{Citation needed|date=September 2011}} With [[Thomas Hobbes]] and [[David Hume|Hume]] he admits the power of self-interest or utility, and makes it enter into morals as the law of self-preservation. [[Francis Hutcheson (philosopher)|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|date=September 2011}}

In the political part of his system Ferguson follows [[Charles de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu|Montesquieu]], and pleads the cause of well-regulated [[liberty]] and free [[government]]. His contemporaries, with the exception of Hume, regarded his writings as of great importance (see [[Sir Leslie Stephen]], ''English Thought in the Eighteenth Century'', Cambridge University Press, 2011, p.&nbsp;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.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Zeng |first=Elena Yi-Jia |date=2022 |title=Empire and Liberty in Adam Ferguson's Republicanism |journal=History of European Ideas |volume=48 |issue=7 |pages=909–929 |doi=10.1080/01916599.2022.2040045 |s2cid=246985898 |issn=0191-6599|doi-access=free }}</ref> He defended the British Empire, but argued that political representation was key to prevent it from becoming tyrannical.<ref name=":0" />

==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 [[God]]; so are humans, who are progressive. Social history is, in accordance with this natural progress, made by humans, and because of that factor it experiences occasional setbacks. But in general, humans are empowered by God to pursue progress in social history. Humans live not for themselves but for God's providential plan. He emphasized aspects of medieval [[chivalry]] as ideal [[masculine]] characteristics. British gentlemen and young men were advised to dispense with aspects of politeness considered too [[feminine]], such as the constant desire to please, and to adopt less superficial qualities that suggested inner [[virtue]] and [[courtesy]] toward the 'fairer sex.'<ref name="Kettler, 1965">Kettler, ''The Social and Political Thought of Adam Ferguson'' (1965)</ref><ref name="ReferenceA">Herman, A., The Scottish Enlightenment, Harper Perennial</ref>

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 [[Church of Scotland|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.<ref>Hill (1997)</ref>

Ferguson was influenced by classical humanism and such writers as [[Tacitus]], [[Niccolò Machiavelli]], and [[Thomas Hobbes]]. The fellow members of Edinburgh's [[The Select Society|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.<ref name="Kettler, 1965"/>

Smith emphasized [[capital accumulation]] as the driver of growth, but Ferguson suggested innovation and technical advance were more important, and he is therefore in some ways more in line with modern thinking. According to Smith, commerce tends to make men 'dastardly'. This foreshadows a theme Ferguson, borrowing freely from Smith, took up to criticize capitalism.  Ferguson's critique of commercial society went far beyond that of Smith, and influenced [[Hegel]] and Marx.<ref name="Kettler, 1965"/><ref name="ReferenceA"/>
[[File:0057669c.jpg|alt=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.|thumb|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 [[Civic republicanism|civic republican]] citizenship in modern Britain, and an influence on the ideas of [[Republicanism in the United States|republicanism]] held by the [[American Founding Fathers]].<ref name="Kettler, 1965"/>

==Personal life==
He married Katherine Burnett in 1767.<ref>{{cite book|title=Biographical Index of Former Fellows of the Royal Society of The Edinburgh 1783–2002|year=2006|publisher=The Royal Society of Edinburgh|isbn=090219884X|url=https://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp1.pdf|access-date=29 April 2016|archive-date=24 January 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130124115814/http://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp1.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref> Ferguson was first cousin, close friend and colleague to [[Joseph Black|Joseph Black M.D]]  and Katie Burnett was Black's niece.<ref>Records of the Clan and Name Ferguson 1895 p. 138 note. 1</ref> They produced seven children. The eldest, [[Adam Ferguson (British Army officer)]],  was a close friend to Sir Walter Scott, followed by James, Joseph, John, Isabella, Mary and Margaret.<ref>Records of the clan and name of Fergusson by D Douglas 1895 p. 144</ref> John ([[John MacPherson Ferguson]]) was a Rear Admiral in the [[Royal Navy]].<ref>Burkes peerage</ref>

Ferguson suffered an attack of [[paralysis]] in 1780 but fully recovered and became a [[Vegetarianism|vegetarian]] for the rest of his life.<ref>James Ferguson. (1905). ''The Ferguson Family: In Scotland and America''. The Times Presses. p. 28</ref><ref>Oz-Salzberger, Fania. (2001). ''Ferguson: An Essay on the History of Civil Society''. p. 28. {{ISBN|0521447364}}</ref> Ferguson also abstained from alcoholic drink. He did not dine out unless with his first cousin and great friend Joseph Black.<ref>Johnson, Edgar. (1970). ''Sir Walter Scott: 1771–1821''. Hamish Hamilton. p. 61</ref>

==Main works==
* ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=-04uAAAAYAAJ&q=adam+ferguson An Essay on the History of Civil Society]'' (1767)<ref>{{cite book |author= Ferguson, Adam |title=An Essay on the History of Civil Society |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=8rVaAAAAcAAJ&dq=an+essay+on+the+civil+society+adam&pg=PP5 |place=London and Edinburgh  |publisher= A. Millar and T. Cadell, A. Kincaid and J. Bell |year= 1768 |edition= 2nd  |via= [[Google Books]]}}</ref>
** Reprinted in 1995 with a new introduction by Louis Schneider. Transaction Publishers, London, 1995.
* ''[https://archive.org/details/historyprogress09ferggoog The History of the Progress and Termination of the Roman Republic]'' (1783)
* ''Principles of Moral and Political Science; being chiefly a retrospect of lectures delivered in the College of Edinburgh'' (1792)<ref name="Essay95"/>{{rp|xxviii}}
* ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=1ucUAAAAQAAJ&q=ferguson+%22institutes+of+moral+philosophy%22 Institutes of Moral Philosophy]'' (1769)
* ''Reflections Previous to the Establishment of a Militia'' (1756)<ref name=Hamowy2006>
{{cite book|last=Hamowy|first=Ronald |title=Scottish Thought and the American Revolution: Adam Ferguson's Response to Richard Price |publisher=Liberty Fund |year=2006 |series=(David Womersely, ed., Liberty and American Experience in the Eighteenth Century) |pages=Chapter |url=http://oll.libertyfund.org/title/1727/81740|access-date=14 September 2011}}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}
* {{EB1911|wstitle=Ferguson, Adam|volume=10|page=271}}

==Sources==
* {{A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature}}
* Articles in ''[[Dictionary of National Biography]]''
* {{cite encyclopedia |last=Hamowy |first=Ronald |author-link=Ronald Hamowy |encyclopedia=The Encyclopedia of Libertarianism |chapter= Ferguson, Adam (1723–1816) |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=yxNgXs3TkJYC   |year=2008 |publisher= [[SAGE Publishing|Sage]]; [[Cato Institute]] |location= Thousand Oaks, CA |doi=10.4135/9781412965811.n107 |isbn= 978-1412965804 |oclc=750831024| lccn = 2008009151 |pages=176–177 |url-access=subscription }}
* {{cite thesis  |author=Hamowy, Ronald  |author-link=Ronald Hamowy  |title=The social and political philosophy of Adam Ferguson : a commentary on his Essay on the history of civil society |type= PhD|year=1969 |publisher= University of Chicago |oclc=22572105 }}
* [[Lisa Hill (political scientist)|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
* [[James McCosh|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 [[Karl Marx]]''. In: ''Beiträge zur Marx-Engels-Forschung. Neue Folge 2009''. Argument Verlag, Hamburg 2010, S. 7–60 {{ISBN|978-3886196692}}
* "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.&nbsp;115–130.

==Further reading==
* Broadie, Alexander, ed. ''The Scottish Enlightenment: An Anthology'' (2001).
* [https://researchdirect.westernsydney.edu.au/islandora/object/uws:6379/datastream/PDF/view Reconsidering the Highland roots of Adam Ferguson by Denise Testa 2007.]

==External links==
{{Commons category}}
{{wikiquote}}
* {{gutenberg author| id=2831| name=Adam Ferguson}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Adam Ferguson}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20120509201627/http://socserv2.socsci.mcmaster.ca/~econ/ugcm/3ll3/ferguson/civil.html ''An Essay on the History of Civil Society'']
* [http://oll.libertyfund.org/index.php?option=com_staticxt&staticfile=show.php%3Fperson=4096&Itemid=28 Adam Ferguson] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121024195724/http://oll.libertyfund.org/index.php?option=com_staticxt&staticfile=show.php%3Fperson=4096&Itemid=28 |date=24 October 2012 }} at [https://web.archive.org/web/20070608070935/http://oll.libertyfund.org/Home3/index.php ''The Online Library of Liberty'']
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