This fact, no doubt, should be taken into account in any detailed criticism of the philosophic work; it was taken up not as an end but as ancillary to a social and ethical system.
In his ethical system Ferguson treats man throughout as a social being, and illustrates his doctrines by political examples.
His ethical system was reproduced, though in a more precise and philosophical form, by Hutcheson, and from him descended, with certain variations, to Hume and Adam Smith.
A certain amount of scepticism prevails among the educated classes, and political motives may ' contribute to their apparent orthodoxy, but there is no open dissent from Buddhism, and those who discard its dogmas still, as a rule, venerate it as an ethical system.
Albertus is frequently mentioned by Dante, who made his doctrine of free-will the basis of his ethical system.
