Speaking of Smith Archives

Freedom is Different People: Cities & Inclusive Freedom

Ryan Muldoon for AdamSmithWorks

Cities, and the diverse others that we find there, help fuel cultural, social, and political innovations as well. What we can do, and who we can be expands when there are other people around. This is especially true when those other people bring different ideas, different values, and different skills to the systems of social cooperation that we are embedded in. Those differences fuel the expansion of our capacities.

A Mother’s Suffering through the Eyes of Adam Smith

Edward J. Harpham for AdamSmithWorks

The connections forged by sympathy among human beings can be life enhancing, as in the case of a mother’s feelings for a sick child. The mother’s fellow-feelings and experiences of the world motivates her to do something to lessen the child’s suffering which helps the child. There is a downside as well.

If Bernard Mandeville is Larry David, who's Jerry Seinfeld? Adam Smith, of course.

Garret Edwards for AdamSmithWork

Smith's review on Mandeville’s has an interesting presentation: In ‘The Theory of Moral Sentiments,’ Smith reviews the great systems of moral philosophy and devotes a long chapter to Mandeville, who he judges as "licentious" and "wholly pernicious," in the sense that he takes away altogether the distinction between vice and virtue.

Adam Smith peeks in at the new series The Gilded Age

Christy Lynn for AdamSmithWorks

The perceived discontinuity between Adam Smith’s Theory of Moral Sentiments and the Wealth of Nations is so famous as to have been dubbed, “Das Adam Smith Problem.” But as individuals we weave in and out of the situations he’s describing in both works all the time, often within minutes of each other. I was reminded of this thought watching the premier of Julian Fellowes’ The Gilded Age on HBO... What comes next reveals an understanding of how impersonal markets work right next to personal human sympathy.

Adam Smith, Madame Geneva, and the Consequences of Liquor Prohibition

Renee Wilmeth for AdamSmithWorks

When it came to using government to stem the tide of drunkenness, Smith wasn’t necessarily convinced it was the right answer. As he notes in 1762 in his Lectures on Jurisprudence “It is said indeed that taxes on those liquors prevent drunkenness, but the conterary [sic] is probably the case. By raising their price, they make them an object of their desire … We see accordingly that in Spain and France, where all liquors are very cheap, there is less drunkenness than in this country.”

Can Sober Smithians Soften Polarized Partisans?

James E Hartley for AdamSmithWorks

Once the body politic has absorbed the slogans, the stage is set for a renewal of polarization. Don’t you want it to be “Morning in America?” Once this great beast of public expectations has been aroused, the center can no longer hold. Leaders on both sides become trapped.

Searching for Adam Smith in Serbia

Marko Veckov for AdamSmithWorks

Adam Smith favored private enterprise, knowing that individual actors and not the state promote economic growth and social justice. It was markets, consisting of people who, although unintentionally, care for each other, that needed to be freed, not the government guiding the economy.

Dear Adam Smith: Carrying My Sorrows

Our selfish passions often induce us to ignore reality. The more important the decision, the easier it is to be partial toward yourself. After we have acted, we can examine our conduct and endeavor to view it more impartially

An Attitude of Gratitude

Alice Temnick for AdamSmithWorks

Smith suggests that the sympathy, or fellow feeling we have toward others develops with experience. Perhaps it can be thought of as a life-long project to work at “conceiving what we ourselves should feel in the like situation”. Walking in another’s shoes and working hard to get it right.

Where Turnips Turn Up in Adam Smith's World

Renee Wilmeth for AdamSmithWorks

During Smith’s lifetime, he saw widespread changes in agriculture including land use, grain production, and the humble turnip was on the leading edge of this revolution.

Adam Smith’s Critique of the Public’s Scrutiny of the Poor: Part II

Kristen Collins for AdamSmithWorks

Smith articulated the demeaning nature of being “obliged to expose” ourselves to the judgments of imperfectly sympathetic spectators. Smith’s example of the innocent man accused of a crime he did not commit perfectly encapsulates the pain of being a morally judicious individual subject to unjust public censure.

Adam Smith’s Critique of the Public’s Scrutiny of the Poor: Part I

Kristen Collins for AdamSmithWorks

People living in poverty did not need to actually partake in any undesirable or immoral activity to be the target of public contempt and disdain. Smith’s discussions of how differently people tend to view and judge the wealthy and the poor is key to understanding his theory of moral spectatorship.