Just Sentiments

Christopher Martin for AdamSmithWorks

Martin looks closely at when and how Adam Smith advocates for the interests and welfare of the least well off.

Did Adam Smith always side with the poor and weak against the rich and powerful? Christopher Martin gives the resounding answer: Yes, mostly. It’s a little complicated.

February 22, 2023

Caroline Breashears for AdamSmithWorks

Breashears shows that there's always more to learn from Adam Smith - not only from the content of his writing but from the paratexts of his work as well.

"Seeing Smith's paratextual materials, we recover some of the fullness of Smith’s outlook for human life in modern times."

January 25, 2023

Patrick Fitzsimmons for AdamSmithWorks

What are the historical requirements for the emergence of stable liberal polities? Adam Smith suggests monogamous marriages as an important, steadying institution.

"Families meet not on violent terms, but on civil and economic ones instead. The polity can focus on improving the polity, rather than fighting."

December 28, 2022

Erik W. Matson for AdamSmithWorks

Adam Smith's “An Inquiry into the Principles which Lead and Direct Philosophical Enquiries; Illustrated by the History of Astronomy.” is an adventure into reflection on the passional and aesthetic dimensions of scientific and philosophic practice.

"As we participate in Smith’s passions, we can’t help but feel still higher levels of surprise, wonder, and admiration: surprise at the ending of Smith’s essay, wonder at the novelty of his ironic self-contradiction, and admiration for his genius. The sentiments encourage us to puzzle over Smith’s contrariety and arrive at a fuller sense of the purpose of his essay."

November 23, 2022

Caleb Petitt and Daniel Klein for AdamSmithWorks

290 vs 0. That's the tally between the mentions of "sympathy" in Adam Smith's Theory of Moral Sentiments vs his Wealth of Nations. Caleb Petitt and Daniel Klein keep count on this and much more.

"The dramatic difference in the language used by Smith in his two books does not reflect a change in Smith over time...The language shift is all part of a larger, coherent, unified attempt to improve people’s judgments."

October 26, 2022

Kacey Reeves West for AdamSmithWorks

Kacey Reeves West examines Smith on entrepreneurs and prudent entrepreneurship from princes to politicians to businesswomen.

"Smith cautions that these life-changing opportunities might tempt individuals to abandon virtue and embrace vice. For that reason, Smith calls on individuals to tackle life-changing opportunities with prudence and justice lest they fall prey to disordered ambition."

September 28, 2022

Marcus Shera for AdamSmithWorks

Shera explores the connection between thinking and conduct in William James and Adam Smith's philosophical works.

"Meaningful beliefs come with practical habits, and the value of those habits is a test of truth."

August 24, 2022

Jacob Hall for AdamSmithWorks

Hall shows that Adam Smith and David Hume's ideas concerning the Common Law and English Liberty are more closely related that some scholars believe.

"The style of Hume’s History and Smith’s LJ differ, or course. Smith lectured to students whereas Hume wrote for mass consumption. But their estimation of the importance of the common law for the development of English liberty is equal."

June 27, 2022

Erik W. Matson for AdamSmithWorks

Matson explains Adam Smith's moral authorizations of the pursuit of honest income and the presumption of liberty.

"One of the patron saints of the Great Enrichment, Smith teaches how we do our part in serving the good of the whole; how in focusing diligently on the good of our part we serve that of the whole; and how freedom fortifies the remarkable correspondence between those two goods."

June 22, 2022

Daniel B. Klein for AdamSmithWorks


Klein focuses on the crucial concepts of jural theory and jurisprudence and how these relate to Deirdre McCloskey's work on the Great Enrichment.
 
"Whatever the reasons for its neglect, the jural theory of Grotius and others clarified and still clarifies the liberty that is at the center of what Smith called 'the liberal plan.' "

May 25, 2022

Daniel B. Klein and Erik W. Matson for AdamSmithWorks

In the second essay in our series, Klein and Matson discuss Smith and Hume's language and ideas about "nature" and "convention."

"We can define natural convention as a social practice whose concrete form in time and place allows for various expressions (and is therefore conventional), but whose generalized form is necessary (and hence natural) to social development beyond the primeval state."
 
April 27, 2022