‘But Art itself is Natural to Man’: Adam Ferguson and the Principle of Simultaneity

Abstract

Despite a passage in his Institutes Ferguson does not systematically order his historical narrative in terms of what is labelled (as short-hand) the ‘four stages’. Ferguson’s conception and typology of ‘arts’ is explored; more particularly it addresses his argument that all the arts are co-eval in human experience. Hence Ferguson claims of the basic 3-fold classification (made in the Principles) of commercial, political and ornamental arts that they are simultaneous. As he recognises this means it is mistake to prioritise, both chronologically and conceptually, those arts which attend to the exigencies of material life over those which serve the need for mental attainment and ornament.