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 1707
... thought that 'it requires too much thought' to reach a wide audience, it immediately acquired a significant readership in political and intellectual circles in Edinburgh, London and Paris.1 Even Smith's most intelligent critic, the ...
... thought that 'it requires too much thought' to reach a wide audience, it immediately acquired a significant readership in political and intellectual circles in Edinburgh, London and Paris.1 Even Smith's most intelligent critic, the ...
Page 1714
... thought at the stage at which it was ready to be developed into two of the treatises that were projected but never ... thoughts on the finished articles, and that they can be read as the work of a formidably ambitious young thinker ...
... thought at the stage at which it was ready to be developed into two of the treatises that were projected but never ... thoughts on the finished articles, and that they can be read as the work of a formidably ambitious young thinker ...
Page 1726
... thought that Oswald had played a decisive part in persuading Smith to develop his interests in political economy.“ In the Wealth of Nations, Smith was to pay close attention to the role of small towns in shaping the commerce and culture ...
... thought that Oswald had played a decisive part in persuading Smith to develop his interests in political economy.“ In the Wealth of Nations, Smith was to pay close attention to the role of small towns in shaping the commerce and culture ...
Page 1730
... thought-provoking moral fables and ethical and aesthetic reflections were part of the staple literary diet of the middling ranks' homes. These texts provided a Stoic or, in the case of Cicero and Addison, a quasi-Stoic view of the world ...
... thought-provoking moral fables and ethical and aesthetic reflections were part of the staple literary diet of the middling ranks' homes. These texts provided a Stoic or, in the case of Cicero and Addison, a quasi-Stoic view of the world ...
Page 1732
... thought that he had placed too much faith in the ethical value of contemplation, but he put that down to the fact that Epictetus had been brought up in a semi-barbarous slave society. Smith admired and exploited the spirit of Epictetus ...
... thought that he had placed too much faith in the ethical value of contemplation, but he put that down to the fact that Epictetus had been brought up in a semi-barbarous slave society. Smith admired and exploited the spirit of Epictetus ...
Contents
1699 | |
1703 | |
1707 | |
1717 | |
1737 | |
Oxfordand David Hume | |
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