Almost everyone has heard of Adam Smith, founding father of modern economics and author of Wealth of Nations. There is, however, much more to him than this.<br /> <br />This new introduction gives a crystal clear overview of the entirety of Smith’s thought. It demonstrates how Smith’s economic theories fit into a larger system of thought that encompasses moral philosophy, philosophy of science, legal and political theory, and aesthetics. Examining the central arguments of his major works, ranging from The Theory of Moral Sentiments to his lectures on jurisprudence and beyond, Smith’s thought is explained in its full intellectual and historical context. As the book unfolds, the long-standing caricature of Adam Smith as an uncritical defender of capitalism red in tooth and claw is systematically challenged, revealing a far more complex and nuanced figure whose rich legacy remains highly relevant today.<br /> <br />Comprehensive yet concise, this book will be the leading introduction to Adam Smith’s ideas for generations of students, scholars and general readers, relevant to areas ranging from philosophy and the history of economic thought to political theory.
Оглавление
Craig Smith. Adam Smith
Contents
Guide
Pages
Series title. Classic Thinkers series
Adam Smith
Copyright page
Acknowledgements
Abbreviations for Smith’s Works
1 Smith and the Scottish Enlightenment
Life
The Scottish Enlightenment
Newton
Hume
Notes
2 Science and System
Science
Wonder, Surprise, and Admiration
Systems
Rhetoric
Conjectural History
Social Change
Notes
3 Morality and Sympathy
Sympathy
Sociability
Propriety
General Rules
Custom
The Impartial Spectator
The Limits of Sympathy
Self-command
Notes
4 Justice and Virtue
Justice
Benevolence
Police
Religion
Moral Corruption
The Invisible Hand
The Implications of Inequality
Notes
5 Jurisprudence
Stadial Theory
Property
Government
Warfare
The Fall of Feudalism
Modern Liberty
Notes
6 The Nature of Wealth
The Division of Labour
Trade
Markets
Wages
Capital
Saving
Productive and Unproductive Labour
Banking and Money
Notes
7 Government and the Market
The Mercantile System
Mercantile Policy
Empire
The Agricultural System
Defence
Justice
Publick Works and Institutions
Education
Taxation
Notes
8 Legacy and Influence
‘Das Adam Smith-Problem’
Moral Sentiments
The Famous Dr Smith
Classical Political Economy
Marxism
The New Right
Contemporary Political Economy
Smith Studies
Adam Smith Problems
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index
POLITY END USER LICENSE AGREEMENT
Отрывок из книги
Craig Smith
Ancient Physics: ‘The Principles which Lead and Direct Philosophical Enquiries; Illustrated by the History of the Ancient Physics’, in Essays on Philosophical Subjects, ed. W. P. D. Wightman. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1980 [1795], pp. 106–17.
.....
The upheaval of the Jacobite rebellions convinced the new establishment of the need to civilize Scotland’s northern fringe. The military suppression of the clans was followed by attempts to encourage development in the Highlands through agricultural reform and by opening up the area with new roads and the imposition of a uniform system of justice. The proceeds of the estates confiscated from the Jacobite leaders were used to fund these investments and to encourage a series of planned villages which sought to offer employment to the Highlanders. Towns such as Ullapool and villages like Luss provided modern homes and the promise of employment. The old clan chiefs lost their civil and political power and the century saw movements of people from the Highlands to the towns and cities and to the colonies.
Scotland saw enormous social change in the eighteenth century, and in the circumstances of a rapidly changing country it is little surprise that its intellectual class, the so-called ‘literati’, became preoccupied with an attempt to understand social and historical change. The thinkers of the Scottish Enlightenment gathered in the cities could see the beginnings of urban commercial society and modern agriculture in the Lowlands, but they could also look north to the Highlands and see a much older form of clan-based subsistence economy. The difference fascinated them and posed the question of how the Highlands might be ‘improved’. If we look at Smith’s writings, the Wealth of Nations in particular is filled with Scottish examples. It is no surprise that Smith was interested in society and in economics because he had around about him a living laboratory of rapid social development. But like his fellow literati, his interests were not parochial: he believed that the attempt to generalize from the experience of a particular country would allow for the understanding of universal features of human social life.
