Adam Ferguson and the idea of civil society : moral science in the Scottish Enlightenment

Resource Information

The work Adam Ferguson and the idea of civil society : moral science in the Scottish Enlightenment represents a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in European University Institute. This resource is a combination of several types including: Work, Language Material, Books.

Label

Adam Ferguson and the idea of civil society : moral science in the Scottish Enlightenment

Title remainder

moral science in the Scottish Enlightenment

Statement of responsibility

Craig Smith

Title variation

Moral science in the Scottish Enlightenment

Creator

• Smith, Craig, 1977-

Subject

• Civil society
• Enlightenment -- Moral and ethical aspects -- Scotland
• Ferguson, Adam, 1723-1816

Language

eng

Summary

Adam Ferguson, a friend of David Hume and Adam Smith, was among the leading Scottish Enlightenment figures who worked to develop a science of man. He created a methodology for moral science that combined empirically based social theory with normative moralising. He was among the first in the English-speaking world to make use of the terms civilization, civil society and political science. Craig Smith explores Ferguson's thought, and examines his attempt to develop a genuine moral science and its place in providing a secure basis for the virtuous education of the new elite of Hanoverian Britain. The Ferguson that emerges is far from the stereotyped image of a republican sceptical about commercial society and much closer to the mainstream of the Scottish Enlightenment and its defence of the new British commercial order. --

Member of

• Edinburgh studies in Scottish philosophy

Assigning source

Provided by publisher

Index

index present

Literary form

non fiction

Nature of contents

bibliography

Series statement

Edinburgh Studies in Scottish Philosophy

Target audience

specialized