Introduction

Adam Ferguson held a respectable position among the eighteenth-century men of letters who were his contemporaries, and he enjoyed, for a time, great popularity and influence among the literate public. He was known as the professor of moral philosophy at the University of Edinburgh and as the author of a history of Rome, in addition to several books dealing with topics in moral, social, and political philosophy. Ferguson has been the subject of a book-length treatment, of several shorter monographs, and of chapters in a number of historical studies. Ferguson thought well of ambition and was pleased by the energy engendered by the modern ethical code of achievement and success, but he also believed that modern man in a frenzy of ambition and frustration might tear at his own self-respect and peace of mind. Ferguson's philosophical writings bear throughout the marks of his eager involvement in society.