It is a sad serendipity that the dysfunctional, distressing social collapse we view from the US is from the town of Ferguson ("Ferguson burns as riots follow grand jury decision", The Herald, November 26).
Ferguson (Adam), the Scottish Enlightenment philosopher and author of Principles of Moral and Political Science as well as Essays on the History of Civil Society, is acknowledged as the founder of sociology.
He was concerned (unlike Adam Smith) that, as commerce grew and developed, society would need to be nurtured through a process of moral activism by those in authority.
It is the shameful absence of Adam Ferguson's moral leadership in the face of historical racial injustices across America that is creating the scenes of social breakdown being broadcast from Ferguson, Missouri.
TM Cross,
18 Needle Green,
Carluke.
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