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Adam Ferguson as a Moral Philosopher

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 August 2013

Abstract

Adam Ferguson has received little of the renewed attention that contemporary philosophers have given to the philosophers of the Scottish Enlightenment, most notably David Hume, Thomas Reid and Adam Smith. There are good reasons for this difference. Yet, the conception of moral philosophy at work in Ferguson's writings can nevertheless be called upon to throw important critical light on the current enthusiasm for philosophical ethics and applied philosophy. Eighteenth century ‘moral science’ took its significance from a context that modern philosophers who seek to be practically ‘relevant’ need, but lack.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Institute of Philosophy 2013 

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References

1 Notable among a good many examples are Nicholas Wolterstorff Thomas Reid and the Story of Epistemology (2001), Phillip de Bary Thomas Reid and Skepticism (2002), William C Davis, Thomas Reid's Ethics, (2006) Ryan Nichols Thomas Reid's Theory of Perception (2007), James R Otteson Adam Smith's Market Place of Life (2002), Samuel Fleischacker, On Reading Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations: A Philosophical Companion (2004), Ryan Patrick Hanley, Adam Smith and the Character of Virtue (2009), Fonna Forman-Barzilai, Adam Smith and the Circles of Sympathy (2010).

2 Ferguson, Adam, An Essay on the History of Civil Society (1767) (ed.) Oz-Salzberger, Fania, (Cambridge University Press, 1995)Google Scholar, hereafter Essay.

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