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 1694
Nicholas T. Phillipson. NICHQLAS PHILLIPSON Adam Smith An Enlightened Life Yale UNIVERSITY PRESS New Haven & London Published with assistance from the Annie Burr Lewis Fund. Published.
Nicholas T. Phillipson. NICHQLAS PHILLIPSON Adam Smith An Enlightened Life Yale UNIVERSITY PRESS New Haven & London Published with assistance from the Annie Burr Lewis Fund. Published.
Page 1697
... London, Kirkcaldy and the Making of the Wealth of 1 Nations 1766-76 1. The Wealth ofNat1'ons and Smith's 'Very violent attack upon the whole commercial system of Great Britain' 12. Hume's Death 13. Last Years in Edinburgh 1778-90 ...
... London, Kirkcaldy and the Making of the Wealth of 1 Nations 1766-76 1. The Wealth ofNat1'ons and Smith's 'Very violent attack upon the whole commercial system of Great Britain' 12. Hume's Death 13. Last Years in Edinburgh 1778-90 ...
Page 1699
... (London, 1780). (Glasgow University Library) 8. Archibald, Earl of Islay and 3rd Duke of Argyll, engraving T. Chambars after A. Ramsay. (Collection, the author) 9. David Hume, frontispiece from his History of England from the Invasion of ...
... (London, 1780). (Glasgow University Library) 8. Archibald, Earl of Islay and 3rd Duke of Argyll, engraving T. Chambars after A. Ramsay. (Collection, the author) 9. David Hume, frontispiece from his History of England from the Invasion of ...
Page 1701
... London/The Bridgeman Art Library) 24. Elevation of the British Coffee House, by Robert Adam. (Private collection/The Bridgeman Art Library) 25. View from the Walk on the top ofCalton Hill, by Mary Elton. (Courtesy Edinburgh City ...
... London/The Bridgeman Art Library) 24. Elevation of the British Coffee House, by Robert Adam. (Private collection/The Bridgeman Art Library) 25. View from the Walk on the top ofCalton Hill, by Mary Elton. (Courtesy Edinburgh City ...
Page 1704
... London and Sussex, at Budapest, Fiesole and Munich and at Chapel Hill and Columbia, and 1 am grateful to all of those who took part for their criticism and encouragement. Emma Rothschild, Tony LaVopa, Richard Bourke and David Raynor ...
... London and Sussex, at Budapest, Fiesole and Munich and at Chapel Hill and Columbia, and 1 am grateful to all of those who took part for their criticism and encouragement. Emma Rothschild, Tony LaVopa, Richard Bourke and David Raynor ...
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 | |
Other editions - View all
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