Adam Ferguson: His Social and Political Thought

392 Pages·2005·19.262 MB·English

by  David Kettler

Adam
Ferguson

Adam
Ferguson
His Social and
Political Thought
David Kettler
With a new introduction
and afterword by the author
Routledge
Taylor & Francis Group
LONDON AND NEW YORK
Originally published in 1965 by the Ohio State University Press
Published 2005 by Transaction Publishers
Published 2017 by Routledge
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New material this edition copyright © 2005 by Taylor & Francis.
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Library of Congress Catalog Number: 2005043703
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Kettler, David.
[Social and political thought of Adam Ferguson]
Adam Ferguson, his social and political thought / David Kettler; with a
new introduction and afterword by the author.
p. cm.
Originally published: The social and political thought of Adam Ferguson.
Columbus : Ohio State University Press, 1965.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 1-4128-0475-2
1. Ferguson, Adam, 1723-1816. 2. Civilization—History. I. Title.
HM479.F47K48 2005
192—dc22
2005043703
ISBN-13: 978-1-4128-0475-2 (pbk)
FOR RUTH

Table of Contents
Introduction to the Transaction Edition ix
Introduction 3
Part I: Adam Ferguson's Situation
I The Transformation of Scotland 15
II The Emerging Intelligensia 33
III Adam Ferguson: Biography 42
IV Adam Ferguson: Political Opinion and Political
Practice 83
Part II: Adam Ferguson's Moral Philosophy
V The Possibility of Knowledge 107
VI The Virtuous Man 138
VII Virtue in Society 187
Society in General: The Promise 187
Societies in Particular: The Threat 200
The Analysis of Social Development 225
Reassessment of Promise and Threat 258
Afterword 317
Index 363

Introduction to the Transaction Edition
On the Personal History of the Project
I 1954, with the encouragement of my teachers, Robert
D. Gumming and Franz L. Neumann, I successfully
submitted to the Rockefeller Foundation an application for
a pre-doctoral fellowship for a grandiose "re-consideration
of historicism," which aimed to respond to Karl Popper's
Open Society and its Enemies and The Poverty of Historicism,
not so much by arguing with his philosophy of science as
by questioning his polemical account of the uses of histori-
cal periodization in social and political thought. As
Gumming generously reformulated the design in his letter
of support, the point was to examine "what exactly is under
attack, which Popper is labelling 'historicism.'"1 From the
outset, the study expected to draw on a kind of sociological
approach to the characterization of diverse forms of knowl-