Adam Ferguson

Dzieła

• 1767An Essay on the History of Civil Society (Esej o historii społeczeństwa obywatelskiego)

  Ludzi trzeba badać w grupach; narody przechodzą od stanów „surowych” do „ogładzonych” dzięki instytucjom, które są „wynikiem ludzkiego działania, lecz nie wykonaniem żadnego ludzkiego zamysłu”, a jednak wyrafinowanie handlowe i podział pracy mogą podkopywać ducha publicznego.

• 1769Institutes of Moral Philosophy (Zasady filozofii moralnej)

  Podręcznik oparty na jego wykładach w Edynburgu o naturze ludzkiej, umyśle oraz prawie moralnym i politycznym; niemiecki przekład Christiana Garvego z 1772 roku („Grundsätze der Moralphilosophie”) uczynił Fergusona znanym niemieckim czytelnikom, wśród nich Heglowi.

Stanowisko

Ferguson is on the map as a founder of social theory within the Scottish Enlightenment and a key figure in the prehistory of sociology. In “An Essay on the History of Civil Society” (1767) he insisted that human beings must be studied as they have always been found – in groups; there never was a solitary state of nature, and “if we are asked where the state of nature is to be found, we may answer: it is here”. Societies develop from “rude” to “polished” states through institutions that are “the result of human action, but not the execution of any human design” – a formula later central to theories of spontaneous order. Conflict between groups, he argued, strengthens cohesion within them. At the same time he warned of the costs of commercial progress: the division of labour makes workers skilled but narrow, and when citizens leave public affairs to specialists and their defence to standing armies, civic virtue decays and despotism threatens. Hume, his friend, judged the manuscript of the Essay harshly and advised against its publication; with Smith he had a long priority dispute over the division of labour, and he criticised Smith’s theory of sympathy. Marx quoted him on the crippling effects of the division of labour, and Hegel, who read his “Institutes” in Christian Garve’s German translation, drew on him for his concept of civil society. Some later writers have called him a “father of sociology”.

Życie i kontekst

Adam Ferguson was born on 20 June 1723 at Logierait in Perthshire, the son of a Presbyterian minister, in a region where Gaelic was spoken. He studied at St Andrews and Edinburgh and from 1745 to 1754 served as chaplain to the Black Watch, a Highland regiment. In 1757 he succeeded David Hume as keeper of the Advocates’ Library in Edinburgh. He became professor of natural philosophy at the University of Edinburgh in 1759 and of pneumatics and moral philosophy in 1764, a chair he held until 1785. He belonged to the circle of Hume, Adam Smith, William Robertson and Hugh Blair, and in 1778–79 he was secretary to the Carlisle Commission sent to negotiate with the American colonies. He died in St Andrews on 22 February 1816, at the age of 92.

Dalsze główne dzieła

• The History of the Progress and Termination of the Roman Republic (1783)
• Principles of Moral and Political Science (1792)

Pojawia się w

• Podróż „Jak socjologia wyłoniła się z filozofii” · Przystanek 4 z 12