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
Page 1699
... Art Gallery) 2-3. Eutropii historiae breviarum ab urbe condita usque ... Bridgeman Art Library) 6. Robert Simson, engraving by Alexander Baillie ... Library) 8. Archibald, Earl of Islay and 3rd Duke of Argyll, engraving T. Chambars after ...
... Art Gallery) 2-3. Eutropii historiae breviarum ab urbe condita usque ... Bridgeman Art Library) 6. Robert Simson, engraving by Alexander Baillie ... Library) 8. Archibald, Earl of Islay and 3rd Duke of Argyll, engraving T. Chambars after ...
Page 1700
... Bridgeman Art Library) 13. Charles Louis de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu, engraving by Augustin de Saint-Aubin (Private collection/ The Bridgeman Art Library) 14. Jean-Jacques Rousseau Gathering Herbs at Ermenonville, June 1778 ...
... Bridgeman Art Library) 13. Charles Louis de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu, engraving by Augustin de Saint-Aubin (Private collection/ The Bridgeman Art Library) 14. Jean-Jacques Rousseau Gathering Herbs at Ermenonville, June 1778 ...
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... Bridgeman Art Library) 21. Plan of Paris, engraving by L. Bretez. (Private collection/ Giraudon/The Bridgeman Library) 22. Francois Quesnay, engraving by J.-G. Wille. (Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris/The Bridgeman Art Library) 23 ...
... Bridgeman Art Library) 21. Plan of Paris, engraving by L. Bretez. (Private collection/ Giraudon/The Bridgeman Library) 22. Francois Quesnay, engraving by J.-G. Wille. (Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris/The Bridgeman Art Library) 23 ...
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... Bridgeman Art Library for their help with illustrations and to Ann Watters for her help in mapping Smith's Kirkcaldy. It has been the greatest pleasure working with the staff of that most civilized and professional of publishers, the ...
... Bridgeman Art Library for their help with illustrations and to Ann Watters for her help in mapping Smith's Kirkcaldy. It has been the greatest pleasure working with the staff of that most civilized and professional of publishers, the ...
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