Search Results
Jesse S. Cone for AdamSmithWorks "Smith is advocating for the dispersion of capital, not its consolidation. If his system is working on behalf of someone, it certainly is not for the oligarch." … threatens to erode that trust and stymie our corporate wellbeing. We do well to remember the truth. Want to read more? Jesse S. Cone's The Hazards of Ambition Sarah Skwire's Money and Virtue in the Ancient World Jeff Carroll's Mr. Potter: Man of System
Money and Virtue in the Ancient World
with Sarah Skwire July 8, 2019 It is never a bad idea to remind students of economics that, long before Smith’s Wealth of Nations gave birth to modern economics, complex and vivid discussion of economics were already happening. They have been happening, I am certain, for as long as …
Sir William Lucas Should Have Read Adam Smith
by Sarah Skwire July 29, 2019 One of the most delightfully tortuous social gaffes in the series of etiquette errors that is the 1995 film adaptation of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice is Sir William Lucas’s encounter with the Bingley sisters. Austen provides readers with a thorough …
Adam Smith on the Country-City Debate
What is the "best place" to live- the city or the country? September 23, 2019 by Sarah Skwire for AdamSmithWorks One of the ways in which Smith is particularly interesting and useful for current readers of his work is the intelligence with which he comments upon the ever-reviving debate between the country and the city. Much of the current country-city debate …
In Praise of Luxury: Hume's “Of Refinement in the Arts”
Certainly, we know luxury can be taken to excess, and that it how we most often think of it. But Hume points out that its denial can also be excessive.
Dear Adam Smith: An Antidote To Torpor
Stuck in a rut? Adam Smith advises a restless IT worker to look beyond his screen. … are answered by Sarah Skwire, Caroline Breashears, Janet Bufton, Renee Wilmeth, and Christy Lynn. Advice is for the purposes of amusement and education about Smith's thought. We do our best, but caveat emptor and follow our advice at your own risk.
Smith on Rhetoric: Dangerous Clarity
Sarah Skwire for AdamSmithWorks March 2, 2020 ...Smith was--as have been so many writers--both impressed by and wary of the power of good writing and rhetoric I take a truly inordinate amount of pleasure in reminding economists that the father of modern economics began his professional career in 1748 as a lecturer on rhetoric. His lectures on rhetoric and belles lettres--delivered publicly in Edinburgh for at …
#ReadWithMe: Ritchie Robertson’s The Enlightenment Part 5: Practical Enlighteners
Amy Willis for AdamSmithWorks How are (and were!) the forces of commerce to be used to the best advantage of all people? In part, with improvements in agriculture, medicine, and more. Amy Willis continues her adventures reading Ritchie Robertson's The … … , Part II: Of Police Graham McAleer, Smith’s Scientific Milestones, at Speaking of Smith Maryann Keating, Adam Smith on Fostering Civility and Self-Control at AdamSmithWorks Sarah Skwire, What would Adam Smith think about your iPhone? at Speaking of Smith
Wash Your Hands. Stop an Earthquake.
Adam Smith’s discussion of a Chinese Earthquake in Theory of Moral Sentiments is quoted so often that I have, at least once, had an editor tell me that I didn’t need to use the quote at all; I could just refer to the example, and everyone would know what …
Sarah Skwire for AdamSmithWorks March 23, 2020 How do we practice sympathy in a time of social isolation? Adam Smith’s The Theory of Moral Sentiments insists that our ability to sympathize with one another in times of joy or distress is one of the fundamental things that makes us human, and helps us learn to be better humans. But Smith’s conception of …
#ReadWithMe: Ritchie Robertson’s The Enlightenment Part 6: Doing Cosmopolitan History
Amy Willis for AdamSmithWorks Enlightenment ideas and methods come for the historians. Chronological and eye-witness accounts are out and empirical data, statistics, source criticism, and footnotes are in. Learn more about these and other changes in Part …
Dear Adam Smith: Entrepreneur Inquiring
Hire a partner or a part-time employee? Adam Smith is here to help a craft soap maker clean up her thinking on a murky choice. … are answered by Christy Lynn, Sarah Skwire, Caroline Breashears, Janet Bufton, and Renee Wilmeth. Advice is for the purposes of amusement and education about Smith's thought. We do our best, but caveat emptor and follow our advice at your own risk.
Cromwell and the Chiseling of the Court
Sarah Skwire for AdamSmithWorks May 1, 2020 “It is hard to determine what a monarch may or may not do.” I happened to read the much anticipated final entry in Hilary Mantel’s fictional trilogy about Henry VIII’s advisor Thomas Cromwell shortly after re-reading Adam Smith’s Lectures on Jurisprudence. It’s no surprise, then, that I found myself thinking, …
What Adam Smith Ate: Scottish Game
Renee Wilmeth for AdamSmithWorks England was known for the goose – stuffed and roasted – but in Scotland, Adam Smith would most likely have sat down to a wild game bird like partridge or pheasant.
Why Mandeville Makes Smith Mad
Sarah Skwire for AdamSmithWorks June 29, 2020 Adam Smith is generally a fairly calm writer. While his thought is innovative and exciting, his prose style is, in most cases, measured and professorial. When Smith deviates from this deliberate style, it is always worth making note of what has roused him …
Dianne Durante on Innovators in Sculpture
Dianne Durante with Juliette Sellgren
Smith Snark on Bernard Mandeville
Jimena Hurtado for AdamSmithWorks Adam Smith: Mandeville provocateur. Or was he? Jimena Hurtado looks at what Smith's problem is with private vices and public benefits.
Jon Murphy for AdamSmithWorks July 17, 2020 Maugham's story is worth a read for entertainment, but it also highlights an important aspect of commerce: the necessity of sympathy.
Sarah Skwire for AdamSmithWorks Adam Smith’s discussion of the different wages earned by different professions contains a fascinating digression into the very modern question of side gigs. Smith gets there by talking about cottagers, whom he defines as “out-servants of landlords and …
A letter to the editors of The American Conservative August 17, 2020 … party or preference, we would decrease the number of people who visit and the number of people who know about Adam Smith and engage with his work and ideas. Amy Willis Director of AdamSmithWorks.org Sarah Skwire Senior Web Editor, AdamSmithWorks.org