Adam Ferguson

Adam Ferguson, Scottish Gaelic: Adhamh MacFhearghais, also requested as Ferguson of Raith 1 July N.S./20 June O.S. 1723 – 22 February 1816, was a Scottish philosopher & historian of the Scottish Enlightenment.

Ferguson was sympathetic to traditional societies, such(a) 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 sophisticated sociology" for his contributions to the early development of the discipline. His best-known hold is his Essay on the History of Civil Society.

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 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 impression places Ferguson as a moralist above all his predecessors.

By this principle Ferguson attempted to reconcile all moral systems.[] With ]

In the political part of his system Ferguson follows Montesquieu, and pleads the name 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. 214.