Adam Smith: An Enlightened LifeAdam Smith is celebrated all over the world as the author of The Wealth of Nations and the founder of modern economics. A few of his ideas - that of the 'Invisible Hand' of the market and that 'It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest' - have become icons of the modern world. 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 book, by one of the leading scholars of the Scottish Enlightenment, shows the extent to which The Wealth of Nations and Smith's other great work, The Theory of Moral Sentiments, were part of a larger scheme to establish a grand 'Science of Man', one of the most ambitious projects of the European Enlightenment, which was to encompass law, history and aesthetics as well as economics and ethics. |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 42
... Europe 1764-6 10. London , Kirkcaldy and the Making of the Wealth of Nations 1766-76 11. The Wealth of Nations and Smith's ' Very violent attack ... upon the whole commercial system of Great Britain ' 12. Hume's Death 13. Last Years in ...
... Europe. So there is still biographical work to be done by historians who are interested in the development of Smith's mind and character. What is more, it is work of a sort that would surely have met with Smith's approval. Although he ...
... Europe. And we need to think of his family as part of the landed and professional elite that was intent on regenerating, or, as contemporaries liked to put it, 'improving' their estates and the local economy. As a boy, Smith's life was ...
... Europe . Oxford was notorious at least in the Whig Presbyterian circles to which Smith belonged for being an intellectually stagnant , High Church and high Tory institution . Glasgow could offer Smith a distinctive philosophy curriculum ...
... Europe , tobacco merchants constantly ran the risk of overstocking the market and causing prices to slump in a trade that inevitably carried high overheads . Ships had to be bought or hired and provisioned for long journeys ; there was ...
Contents
1695 | |
1699 | |
1709 | |
1719 | |
1741 | |
Oxford and David Hume | |
Edinburghs Early Enlightenment | |
a Conjectural History | |
Smith and the Duke of Buccleuch in Europe 17646 | |
London Kirkcaldy and the Making of the Wealth of Nations 176676 | |
The Wealth of Nations and Smiths Very violent attack upon the whole commercial system of Great Britain | |
Humes Death | |
Last Years in Edinburgh 177890 | |
Epilogue | |
Notes and Sources | |
Bibliography of Works Cited | |
Professor of Moral Philosophy at Glasgow 1 17519 | |
The Theory of Moral Sentiments and the Civilizing Powers of Commerce | |
Professor of Moral Philosophy at Glasgow 2 175963 | |
Index | |