Adam Ferguson and the Idea of Civil Society: Moral Science in the Scottish Enlightenment
Craig Smith
Abstract
Adam Ferguson was a Professor of Moral Philosophy at the University of Edinburgh and a leading member of the Scottish Enlightenment. A friend of David Hume and Adam Smith, Ferguson was among the leading exponents of the Scottish Enlightenment’s attempts to develop a science of man and was among the first in the English speaking world to make use of the terms civilization, civil society, and political science. This book challenges many of the prevailing assumptions about Ferguson’s thinking. It explores how Ferguson sought to create a methodology for moral science that combined empirically base ... More
Keywords: Adam Ferguson, Scottish Enlightenment, Moral Science, Civil Society, Civilization, Republicanism
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2019 | Print ISBN-13: 9781474413275 |
| Published to Edinburgh Scholarship Online: September 2019 | DOI:10.3366/edinburgh/9781474413275.001.0001 |
