An Essay on the History of Civil Society
E58736
An Essay on the History of Civil Society is a 1767 work by Scottish philosopher Adam Ferguson that analyzes the development of human societies, social institutions, and civic virtue within the broader context of Enlightenment thought.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| An Essay on the History of Civil Society canonical | 4 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T466242 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: An Essay on the History of Civil Society Context triple: [Scottish Enlightenment, notableWorkProduced, An Essay on the History of Civil Society]
-
A.
What Social Classes Owe to Each Other
"What Social Classes Owe to Each Other" is an 1883 collection of essays by sociologist William Graham Sumner that argues for limited government, individual responsibility, and laissez-faire economics in the relations between social classes.
-
B.
Discourse on the Origin and Basis of Inequality Among Men
Discourse on the Origin and Basis of Inequality Among Men is a philosophical treatise by Jean-Jacques Rousseau that examines the development of human society and the origins of social and economic inequality.
-
C.
Essays, Moral and Political
Essays, Moral and Political is an early collection of philosophical writings by David Hume that explores topics in ethics, politics, and human nature, helping to establish his reputation as a leading Enlightenment thinker.
-
D.
The Social Contract
The Social Contract is a seminal 1762 political philosophy treatise by Jean-Jacques Rousseau that argues legitimate government is based on a collective agreement formed by the general will of the people.
-
E.
The Spirit of the Laws
The Spirit of the Laws is a foundational 1748 political treatise by Montesquieu that systematically analyzes forms of government and famously articulates the doctrine of separation of powers.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: An Essay on the History of Civil Society Target entity description: An Essay on the History of Civil Society is a 1767 work by Scottish philosopher Adam Ferguson that analyzes the development of human societies, social institutions, and civic virtue within the broader context of Enlightenment thought.
-
A.
What Social Classes Owe to Each Other
"What Social Classes Owe to Each Other" is an 1883 collection of essays by sociologist William Graham Sumner that argues for limited government, individual responsibility, and laissez-faire economics in the relations between social classes.
-
B.
Discourse on the Origin and Basis of Inequality Among Men
Discourse on the Origin and Basis of Inequality Among Men is a philosophical treatise by Jean-Jacques Rousseau that examines the development of human society and the origins of social and economic inequality.
-
C.
Essays, Moral and Political
Essays, Moral and Political is an early collection of philosophical writings by David Hume that explores topics in ethics, politics, and human nature, helping to establish his reputation as a leading Enlightenment thinker.
-
D.
The Social Contract
The Social Contract is a seminal 1762 political philosophy treatise by Jean-Jacques Rousseau that argues legitimate government is based on a collective agreement formed by the general will of the people.
-
E.
The Spirit of the Laws
The Spirit of the Laws is a foundational 1748 political treatise by Montesquieu that systematically analyzes forms of government and famously articulates the doctrine of separation of powers.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (49)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
Enlightenment-era text
ⓘ
book ⓘ philosophical work ⓘ |
| author | Adam Ferguson ⓘ |
| authorBirthplace |
Perth and Kinross
ⓘ
surface form:
Perthshire
|
| authorNationality | Scottish ⓘ |
| centuryOfPublication | 18th century ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin | Scotland ⓘ |
| genre |
moral philosophy
ⓘ
political philosophy ⓘ social philosophy ⓘ |
| hasPart |
account of the rise of political and legal institutions
ⓘ
analysis of rude and polished nations ⓘ critique of excessive commercial refinement ⓘ discussion of stages of social development ⓘ reflection on national character and manners ⓘ |
| historicalContext |
18th-century theories of stadial history
ⓘ
Scottish Enlightenment debates on progress ⓘ |
| influenced |
political thought
ⓘ
social theory ⓘ sociology ⓘ theory of civil society ⓘ |
| influencedBy |
Scottish moral philosophy
ⓘ
Stoic philosophy ⓘ classical republicanism ⓘ natural law theory ⓘ |
| language | English ⓘ |
| mainTopic |
civic virtue
ⓘ
commercial society ⓘ corruption and luxury ⓘ development of human societies ⓘ division of labour ⓘ freedom and political participation ⓘ history of political communities ⓘ military spirit and martial virtue ⓘ progress of civil society ⓘ relationship between barbarism and refinement ⓘ social institutions ⓘ |
| philosophicalMovement |
Age of Enlightenment
ⓘ
surface form:
Enlightenment
Scottish Enlightenment ⓘ |
| philosophicalTheme |
historical progress and decline
ⓘ
role of conflict and war in social development ⓘ tension between liberty and authority ⓘ virtue in modern commercial societies ⓘ |
| publicationYear | 1767 ⓘ |
| relatedConcept |
civic humanism
ⓘ
civil society ⓘ commercial society ⓘ stadial theory of history ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: An Essay on the History of Civil Society Description of subject: An Essay on the History of Civil Society is a 1767 work by Scottish philosopher Adam Ferguson that analyzes the development of human societies, social institutions, and civic virtue within the broader context of Enlightenment thought.
Referenced by (4)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
Principles of Moral and Political Science
→
relatedWorkByAuthor
→
An Essay on the History of Civil Society
ⓘ