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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... mind and sense of self - respect that comes from knowing that one is able to live an active social life at ease with one's self and with others . Above all , they taught young people the value of philosophy to public life and of public ...
... mind and reason had established their dominion over the body and the passions . Under these circumstances , he would be free . As Epictetus put it , ' Anytus and Meletus can kill me , but they cannot harm me.'27 Epictetus had shown how ...
... themselves if they were ever to aspire to a life of virtue and peace of mind , a world which was in need of moral reform . Like Cicero , Addison had little time for the ' severer ' Stoics and thought that those who tried to cultivate the.
... minds of the citizens were commerce and religion , the chief means of acquiring importance among them were wealth and piety ' . " This pietism had deep tap - roots which have never been properly studied . Before the Reformation , when ...
... mind ' . He must be able to move freely and easily in the world , retaining as much purity of mind ' as if he were living outside the world ' . He must be wary of the blandishments of the great for , ' while we shew all due regard to ...
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 | |