Adam
Ferguson
born June 20, 1723, Logierait, Perthshire, Scot.
died Feb. 22, 1816, St. Andrews, Fife
historian and philosopher of the Scottish
“common sense” school of philosophy who is
remembered as a forerunner of modern sociology
for his emphasis on social interactions.
Ferguson’s article on history appeared in the
second edition of the Encyclopędia Britannica
(see Britannica Classic: history).
Educated at the University of St. Andrews,
Ferguson was appointed deputy chaplain to
Scotland’s Black Watch Regiment in 1745 and
engaged in combat in Flanders. In 1757 he
abandoned the clerical profession to succeed his
friend David Hume as keeper of the Advocates’
Library in Edinburgh. He became professor of
natural philosophy at the University of
Edinburgh in 1759 and professor of mental and
moral philosophy there in 1764. Before resigning
his chair in 1785, he had written his major
works, which include The Morality of Stage Plays
Seriously Considered (1757); Essay on the
History of Civil Society (1767); Institutes of
Moral Philosophy (1769); and Remarks (1776), in
which Ferguson proposed peace terms for the
North Americans fighting in the American
Revolution.
In 1778 Ferguson traveled to Philadelphia
with a British commission sent to negotiate with
American revolutionaries. He spent his later
years in retirement at St. Andrews. Sir Walter
Scott composed his epitaph.
Ferguson is chiefly remembered for the Essay
on the History of Civil Society, an intellectual
history that traces humanity’s progression from
barbarism to social and political refinement. In
his philosophy Ferguson emphasized society as
the wellspring of human morals and actions and,
indeed, of the human condition itself.
Among his other works are The History of the
Progress and Termination of the Roman Republic,
3 vol. (1783), and Principles of Moral and
Political Science, 2 vol. (1792).
Ferguson wrote the article on history for the
second edition of Encyclopędia Britannica
(1780), which included the first timeline
presented in the encyclopaedia.
