Adam Ferguson: His Social and Political Thought PDF
Preview Adam Ferguson: His Social and Political Thought
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 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business New material this edition copyright © 2005 by Taylor & Francis. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. 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-
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