Editing Adam Ferguson (section)

==Ethics==
In his [[ethical system]] Ferguson treats man as a social being, illustrating his doctrines by political examples. As a believer in the progression of the [[Human|human race]], he placed the principle of moral approbation in the attainment of perfection. [[Victor Cousin]] criticised Ferguson's speculations (see his ''Cours d'histoire de la philosophie morale an dix-huitième siècle'', pt. II., 1839–1840):

<blockquote>We find in his method the wisdom and circumspection of the Scottish school, with something more masculine and decisive in the results. The principle of perfection is a new one, at once more rational and comprehensive than benevolence and sympathy, which in our view places Ferguson as a moralist above all his predecessors.</blockquote>

By this principle Ferguson attempted to reconcile all moral systems.{{Citation needed|date=September 2011}} With [[Thomas Hobbes]] and [[David Hume|Hume]] he admits the power of self-interest or utility, and makes it enter into morals as the law of self-preservation. [[Francis Hutcheson (philosopher)|Francis Hutcheson]]'s theory of universal benevolence and [[Adam Smith]]'s idea of mutual sympathy (now [[empathy]]) he combines under the law of society. But, as these laws appear as the means rather than the end of human destiny, they remain subordinate to a supreme end, and the supreme end of perfection.{{Citation needed|date=September 2011}}

In the political part of his system Ferguson follows [[Charles de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu|Montesquieu]], and pleads the cause of well-regulated [[liberty]] and free [[government]]. His contemporaries, with the exception of Hume, regarded his writings as of great importance (see [[Sir Leslie Stephen]], ''English Thought in the Eighteenth Century'', Cambridge University Press, 2011, p.&nbsp;214). Ferguson shared his republican contemporaries' fear that imperial expansion would undermine the liberty of a state, but he saw representative institutions as a solution to the dangers posed by an expanding state.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Zeng |first=Elena Yi-Jia |date=2022 |title=Empire and Liberty in Adam Ferguson's Republicanism |journal=History of European Ideas |volume=48 |issue=7 |pages=909–929 |doi=10.1080/01916599.2022.2040045 |s2cid=246985898 |issn=0191-6599|doi-access=free }}</ref> He defended the British Empire, but argued that political representation was key to prevent it from becoming tyrannical.<ref name=":0" />