Adam Smith: An Enlightened LifeThis fascinating intellectual biography of Adam Smith dramatically rewrites the economist’s life and offers new insight into his iconic concepts The great eighteenth-century British economist Adam Smith (1723–90) is celebrated as the founder of modern economics. Yet Smith saw himself primarily as a philosopher rather than an economist and would never have predicted that the ideas for which he is now best known were his most important. This biography shows the extent to which Smith's great works, The Wealth of Nations and The Theory of Moral Sentiments, were part of one of the most ambitious projects of the Euruopean Enlightenment, a grand “Science of Man" that would encompass law, history, and aesthetics as well as economics and ethics, and which was only half complete on Smith’s death in 1790.Nick Phillipson reconstructs Smith’s intellectual ancestry and shows what Smith took from, and what he gave to, in the rapidly changing intellectual and commercial cultures of Glasgow and Edinburgh as they entered the great years of the Scottish Enlightenment. Above all he explains how far Smith’s ideas developed in dialogue with those of his closest friend, the other titan of the age, David Hume. |
From inside the book
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Page 1709
... economy of a recognizably modern civil society. The Wealth of Nations formed the second part of that superstructure. It offered an account of the political economy of the different types of civil society known to history, and a sharply ...
... economy of a recognizably modern civil society. The Wealth of Nations formed the second part of that superstructure. It offered an account of the political economy of the different types of civil society known to history, and a sharply ...
Page 1714
... political economy of the Wealth of Nations by putting both in the wider context of Smith's unrealized science of man. They alert us to the depth and complexity of Smith's thinking about the formation of the human personality and the ...
... political economy of the Wealth of Nations by putting both in the wider context of Smith's unrealized science of man. They alert us to the depth and complexity of Smith's thinking about the formation of the human personality and the ...
Page 1723
... economic activity in the town. Stocking manufacturing began in 1773, cotton manufacturing in the ... political and economic changes that were transforming contemporary Europe ... economy. As a boy, Smith's life was securely rooted in the.
... economic activity in the town. Stocking manufacturing began in 1773, cotton manufacturing in the ... political and economic changes that were transforming contemporary Europe ... economy. As a boy, Smith's life was securely rooted in the.
Page 1726
... political economy, Mr. Oswald brought his practical knowledge and experience in aid of the Doctor's theoretical deductions, and afforded him much valuable assistance in the laborious investigations in which he was so long engaged. 13 ...
... political economy, Mr. Oswald brought his practical knowledge and experience in aid of the Doctor's theoretical deductions, and afforded him much valuable assistance in the laborious investigations in which he was so long engaged. 13 ...
Page
... political and cultural world and were even beginning to think of this environment as one which encouraged useful learning and politeness. In Glasgow, however, the ... Political Economy Club flourished in the 1750s and whose discussions.
... political and cultural world and were even beginning to think of this environment as one which encouraged useful learning and politeness. In Glasgow, however, the ... Political Economy Club flourished in the 1750s and whose discussions.
Contents
1699 | |
1703 | |
1707 | |
1717 | |
1737 | |
4Edinburghs Early Enlightenment | |
a Conjectural History | |
9Smith and the Duke of Buccleuchin Europe 17646 | |
10London Kirkcaldy and the Making of theWealth of Nations 176676 | |
11The Wealth of Nations andSmiths Very violent attack upon the whole commercialsystem of Great Britain | |
12Humes Death | |
13Last Years in Edinburgh 177890 | |
Epilogue | |
Notes and Sources | |
Bibliography of Works Cited | |
6Professor of Moral Philosophyat Glasgow 1 17519 | |
7The Theory of Moral Sentimentsand the Civilizing Powersof Commerce | |
8Professor of Moral Philosophyat Glasgow 2 175963 | |
Index | |
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Common terms and phrases
Adam Smith agriculture Boswell Bridgeman Art Library Buccleuch Cambridge career century citizens city’s commerce contemporary Corr culture curriculum David Hume depended develop discussion division of labour Dugald Stewart Duke économistes Edinburgh edition Epictetus Essays ethical finance find first France Francis Hutcheson friends Glasgow govemment Henry Home human nature Hume’s Humean impartial spectator important improvement influence intellectual interest James Boswell jurisprudence justice Kirkcaldy language leamed lectures on rhetoric letter liberty literary live London Lord Mandeville manufactures merchants modem Montesquieu moral philosophy Moral Sentiments ofthe Oswald Oxford passions political economy Presbyterian principles Professor progress of opulence published Pufendorf Quesnay Quesnay’s reflect Ross Rousseau Scotland Scots Scottish Enlightenment sense significant sociability society teaching Theory of Moral thinking thought Tobacco Lords town Townshend trade understanding Union virtue Wealth of Nations William writing