Political Figures
Adam Ferguson
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Adam Ferguson (1723 to 1816) was a Scottish Enlightenment philosopher and historian whose An Essay on the History of Civil Society (1767) gave the term civil society its currency in English political thought. Ferguson viewed societies as progressing through stages from savagery through barbarism to civilization, rejected the idea that individuals ever existed in isolation prior to society, and treated commercial and civic competition, properly channeled, as a spur to civilization's advance.
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Ferguson's An Essay on the History of Civil Society (1767) gave the term civil society its currency in English political thought.
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