Adam Ferguson and the Idea of Civil Society : : Moral Science in the Scottish Enlightenment / / Craig Smith.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Edinburgh University Press Complete eBook-Package 2018
• VerfasserIn: Smith, Craig,
• Place / Publishing House: Edinburgh : : Edinburgh University Press, , [2022]; ©2018
• Year of Publication: 2022
• Language: English
• Series: Edinburgh Studies in Scottish Philosophy : ESSP
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (264 p.)

Examines Adam Ferguson's philosophy, political theory and social thought in the context of the Scottish EnlightenmentThe first monograph explicitly devoted to the idea of civil society in the work of Adam Ferguson – its earliest British exponentPlaces civil society at the heart of a study of Ferguson’s methodology of social scienceContributes to the history and understanding of a key concept in contemporary social and political thinkingChallenges the existing interpretations of Ferguson as a sceptic about commercial modernity who was more of an old-fashioned stoic or republican moralist than a fully signed up member of the Scottish EnlightenmentAdam 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.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Preface -- Series Editor’s Introduction -- List of Ferguson’s Works -- 1 Introduction -- 2 Moral Science -- 3 Moral Philosophy -- 4 Moral Education -- 5 Civil Society and Civilisation -- 6 Civilised Warfare -- Bibliography -- Index