Editing Adam Ferguson (section)

==Social thought==
Ferguson's ''[[An Essay on the History of Civil Society]]'' (1767) drew on classical authors and contemporary travel literature, to analyze modern commercial society with a critique of its abandonment of civic and communal virtues. Central themes in Ferguson's theory of citizenship are conflict, play, political participation and military valor. He emphasized the ability to put oneself in another's shoes, saying "fellow-feeling" was so much an "appurtenance of human nature" as to be a "characteristic of the species."  Like his friends [[Adam Smith]] and [[David Hume]] as well as other Scottish intellectuals, he stressed the importance of the spontaneous order; that is, that coherent and even effective outcomes might result from the uncoordinated actions of many individuals.

Ferguson saw history as a two-tiered synthesis of natural history and social history, to which all humans belong. Natural history is created by [[God]]; so are humans, who are progressive. Social history is, in accordance with this natural progress, made by humans, and because of that factor it experiences occasional setbacks. But in general, humans are empowered by God to pursue progress in social history. Humans live not for themselves but for God's providential plan. He emphasized aspects of medieval [[chivalry]] as ideal [[masculine]] characteristics. British gentleman and young men were advised to dispense with aspects of politeness considered too [[feminine]], such as the constant desire to please, and to adopt less superficial qualities that suggested inner [[virtue]] and [[courtesy]] toward the 'fairer sex.'<ref name="Kettler, 1965">Kettler, ''The Social and Political Thought of Adam Ferguson'' (1965)</ref><ref name="ReferenceA">Herman, A., The Scottish Enlightenment, Harper Perennial</ref>

Ferguson was a leading advocate of the [[Idea of Progress]]. He believed that the growth of a commercial society through the pursuit of individual self-interest could promote a self-sustaining progress. Yet paradoxically Ferguson also believed that such commercial growth could foster a decline in virtue and thus ultimately lead to a collapse similar to Rome's. Ferguson, a devout [[Church of Scotland|Presbyterian]], resolved the apparent paradox by placing both developments in the context of a divinely ordained plan that mandated both progress and human free will. For Ferguson, the knowledge that humanity gains through its actions, even those actions resulting in temporary retrogression, form an intrinsic part of its progressive, asymptotic movement toward an ultimately unobtainable perfectibility.<ref>Hill (1997)</ref>

Ferguson was influenced by classical humanism and such writers as [[Tacitus]], [[Niccolò Machiavelli]], and [[Thomas Hobbes]]. The fellow members of Edinburgh's [[The Select Society|Select Society]], which included [[David Hume]] and [[Adam Smith]], were also major influences. Ferguson believed that civilization is largely about laws that restrict our independence as individuals but provide liberty in the sense of security and justice. He warned that social chaos usually leads to despotism. The members of civil society give up their liberty-as-autonomy, which savages possess, in exchange for liberty-as-security, or civil liberty. [[Montesquieu]] used a similar argument.<ref name="Kettler, 1965"/>

Smith emphasized [[capital accumulation]] as the driver of growth, but Ferguson suggested innovation and technical advance were more important, and he is therefore in some ways more in line with modern thinking. According to Smith, commerce tends to make men 'dastardly'. This foreshadows a theme Ferguson, borrowing freely from Smith, took up to criticize capitalism.  Ferguson's critique of commercial society went far beyond that of Smith, and influenced [[Hegel]] and Marx.<ref name="Kettler, 1965"/><ref name="ReferenceA"/>
[[File:0057669c.jpg|alt=Adam Ferguson, previously working as a professor at the University of Edinburgh, became heavily involved in the American War of Independence, especially when asked to join the Carlisle commission which went to America in order to negotiate an agreement with Washington and the American congress. Once in America, Ferguson was appointed secretary of the commission. As this letter states, Ferguson was denied a passport and Washington was wary to make any decisions without the consent of congress beforehand. Ultimately, congress continued to ignore or deny requests from the commission until the party finally returned to Britain later that year. The letter is signed June 9: 1778, three days after the commission arrived in America.|thumb|Letter from George Washington to Doctor Adam Ferguson about the state of Sir Henry Clinton's request for a passport on his behalf. June 9, 1778]]
The ''Essay'' has been seen as an innovative attempt to reclaim the tradition of [[Civic republicanism|civic republican]] citizenship in modern Britain, and an influence on the ideas of [[Republicanism in the United States|republicanism]] held by the [[American Founding Fathers]].<ref name="Kettler, 1965"/>