ANTICIPATIONS OF 19TH-CENTURY AND 20TH-CENTURY SOCIAL THOUGHT IN THE WORK OF FERGUSON,ADAM

This paper seeks to locate Adam Ferguson (1723-1816), a leading light of the Scottish Enlightenment, within a tradition. Ferguson's work see ms to straddle two traditions: classical civic humanism, on the one ha nd, and liberalism on the other. The claims of those scholars who have perceived in Ferguson's work prescient anticipations of nineteenth an d twentieth century social thought are of particular relevance here. I t is the contention of this paper that although Ferguson's work must b e understood as classically and theologically inspired, there are, nev ertheless, clear anticipations of modern social science in it. The dim ensions of Ferguson's work focussed on are: his historiography, his th eories of spontaneous order, habit and conflict, and his anticipatory detection of anomie and alienation effects. Ferguson's unique contribu tion lays in his ability to give ancient insights a 'sociological twis t' thereby bridging the gap between modern and classical traditions.