Adam Ferguson 1723 – 1816
Adam Ferguson was an 18th-century Scottish Enlightenment philosopher and historian, often regarded as one of the founders of modern sociology. His 1767 work An Essay on the History of Civil Society offered an early account of social organisation as the unintended outcome of human action, and analysed the conditions of liberty, civic virtue, and the dangers of commercial modernity. He held the chair of moral philosophy at the University of Edinburgh and was a member of the Scottish Enlightenment circle that included David Hume, Adam Smith, and William Robertson. His later works addressed Roman history, philosophy of history, and moral philosophy. His insights on social institutions, the division of labour, and the consequences of economic specialisation influenced both Adam Smith and later social thinkers including Marx.
Key facts
- Nationality
- Scottish
- Era
- Modern
- Movements
- Scottish Enlightenment, Enlightenment
Selected quotes
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Attributed to Adam Ferguson:
“Mankind, in following the present sense of their minds, in striving to remove inconveniencies, or to gain apparent and contiguous advantages, arrive at ends which even their imagination could not anticipate.”
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Attributed to Adam Ferguson:
“Society is more than a mere convenience; it is the natural element in which our faculties most truly develop.”
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Attributed to Adam Ferguson:
“Liberty is a right which every individual must be ready to vindicate for himself.”
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Attributed to Adam Ferguson:
“If nations actually borrow from their neighbours, they probably borrow only what they are nearly in a condition to have invented themselves.”
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Attributed to Adam Ferguson:
“The boasted refinements of polished ages are not divested of danger.”