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'''Adam Ferguson''' (1723-1816) was a leading intellectual of the Scottish [[Enlightenment]]. His career was spent as a professor of philosophy at the University of Edinburgh (1759–85), where he taught [[Common Sense Realism]].
'''Adam Ferguson''' (1723-1816) was a leading intellectual of the Scottish [[Enlightenment]]. His career was spent as a professor of philosophy at the University of Edinburgh (1759–85), where he taught [[Common Sense Realism]].
[[File:Fergus1.jpg|thumb|220px]]
His ''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 shores, 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. Smith called it "the invisible hand."
His ''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 shores, 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. Smith called it "the invisible hand."