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
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... of our research group were invaluable in keeping my thinking on the move at an important moment in its development. At the same time, my thinking about Smith , the Scottish Enlightenment and much else Acknowledgements.
... important of sciences, the knowledge of the human community, and its operations. That might become principia to the knowledge of politick operations; as Mathematicks are to Mechanicks, Astronomy, and the other Sciences.'2 The success of ...
... important port in Fife and a significant source of customs revenue . By 1723 he was earning around £ 300 per annum , a fairly substantial income by contemporary standards , and was actively campaigning for promotion to take him back to ...
... important group of landed families with which the Smith family was closely connected . Kirkcaldy had a long history of settlement.5 Its name is said to be derived from the Celtic ' Culdee ' and there is evidence of Roman and early ...
... important of the local landed families , for the burgh and for Smith himself , were the Oswalds of Dunnikier . Like William Adam , Captain James Oswald was new to district . He bought Dunnikier in 1703 , built himself the house he ...
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 | |