Adam Ferguson

Adam Ferguson ( born June 20, 1723 in Logierait in Perth, † February 22, 1816 in St Andrews ) was a Scottish historian and social ethics of the Enlightenment. He is considered the co-founder of sociology, since he derived class differences in the social structure of bourgeois society of ownership.

Life

Adam Ferguson was in Perth, Scotland to school and graduated from the University of St Andrews. From 1745 on, he worked as a Presbyterian chaplain and took in the same year in the War of Austrian Succession at the Battle of Fontenoy in part. In 1754 he gave to the ecclesiastical career, and he dedicated himself to literature. In January 1757 he became the successor of David Hume as librarian of the law faculty, but soon took on a job as a tutor in the house of the Earl of Bute.

1759 Ferguson became a professor of natural philosophy at Edinburgh University and moved in 1764 into the tray mental and moral philosophy. His first major work, the Essay of Civil Society, he published, against the advice of Hume, in 1767; they attracted considerable attention and has been translated into several languages. 1776 was published (anonymously) his writing to the American independence movement, which was a replica to a publication of the philosopher Richard Price and with which Ferguson turned to the side of the British Parliament.

1778 Ferguson was appointed head of the commission that - unsuccessfully - tried to negotiate with the American rebels. 1783 appeared his History of the Progress and Termination of the Roman Republic, which was widely read and enjoyed several editions. He set it on the basis of Roman history, the ethical and political doctrines represent, whom he had particularly devoted. The historical work he wrote as objectively and impartially. There is evidence of a conscientious handling of the sources. In some parts of the practical military experience of the author is clear. 1785 Ferguson put down his chair and began working on the revision of his lectures, which he published in 1792 under the title Principles of Moral and Political Science.

At the age of 70 years, Ferguson traveled to the continent to visit Italy and major European cities, where he was received by the relevant scientific community with honor. Since 1795 he settled first at Castle Neidpath in Peebles, then in Hallyands on Manor Water and finally in St Andrews, where he died in 1816 at the age of 92 years.

Teaching

Ferguson sees man in his ethical considerations as a social being, and he shows moral conceptions of political examples concretely. The reconnaissance believed in the progress of humanity and focused his moral reflections on the aspect of the pursuit of perfection. Victor Cousin said:

Using this principle Ferguson tried to bring all moral systems in harmony. Like Hobbes, he believed in the power of self-interest or utility, and led them in the field of morals as the law of self-preservation one. Hutcheson's theory of universal benevolence and Smith's idea of ​​sympathy he combines the law of society. However, since these two laws serve rather as a means rather than as an end of human endeavor, they remain the overriding goal, namely the perfection subordinate.

In the political part of his system Ferguson follows Montesquieu and advocates for the cause of a well-regulated liberty and a free government. His contemporaries, with the exception of Hume, saw his work as significant, without him even though significant independent contributions to the moral and social teaching contributed, but only existing approaches newly combined (see Steven Leslie, English Thought in the Eighteenth Century, pp. 89-90 ).

Works

  • An Essay on the History of Civil Society. Boulter Grierson, Dublin 1767 ( digitized in the Google Book Search ). Essay on the history of bourgeois society. Junius, Leipzig 1768 ( digitized in the Google Book Search ).
  • Treatise on the history of bourgeois society. Fischer, Jena, 1904 ( collection of social science masters. Vol. 2).
  • Essay on the history of bourgeois society. Suhrkamp, Frankfurt am Main 1986, ISBN 3-518-57756-5.

Secondary literature

  • John Small: Biographical Sketch of Adam Ferguson. ( From the Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. ) Edinburgh, 1864 Digitalisat
  • Intermediate Bacha, Hans Medick: Introduction. In: Adam Ferguson: Essay on the history of bourgeois society. Suhrkamp, Frankfurt am Main 1988, ISBN 3-518-28339-1, ( Suhrkamp Taschenbuch Science 739 ).
  • Eugene Heath, Vincenzo Merolle (ed.): Adam Ferguson. History, Progress and Human Nature. Pickering and Chatto, London 2008, ISBN 978-1-85196-864-0, (The Enlightenment world 4 ).
  • Lisa Hill: The Passionate Society. The Social, Political, and Moral Thought of Adam Ferguson. Springer, Dordrecht, inter alia, 2006, ISBN 978-1-4020-3889-1, (Archives d' histoire des idées international = International archives of the history of ideas 191).
  • David Kettler: Adam Ferguson. His Social and Political Thought. With a new introduction and afterword by the author. Transaction Publishers, New Brunswick NJ 2005, ISBN 1-4128-0475-2, (original edition: The social and political thought of Adam Ferguson Ohio State University Press, Columbus Oh 1965.. ).
  • Norbert Waszek: Adam Ferguson. - In: Floor plan of the history of philosophy. The philosophy of the 18th century. Volume 1, Volume 2 Half: Helmut Holzhey, Vilem Mudroch (ed.): Great Britain and North America, The Netherlands. Completely revised edition. Schwabe, Basel, inter alia, 2004, ISBN 3-7965-1987-3, pp. 603-618, 632-635 ( bibliography).
  • Danga Vileisis: The contribution unknown to Adam Ferguson's materialist understanding of history by Karl Marx. In: Contributions to the Marx-Engels research. New Series of 2009. Argument Verlag, Hamburg 2010, pp. 7-60 ISBN 978-3-88619-669-2
Joshua Reynolds Parliament of the United Kingdom Francis Hutcheson (philosopher) Adam Smith Name Authority File
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