Speaking of Smith Archives

What Makes Man Sociable?

Amy Willis for AdamSmithWorks


What makes people naturally sociable? How do we come to together as a community or society? Sympathy, according to Smith, is one of "the original passions of human nature." What do you think Smith meant by sympathy? 

There's No Such Thing as Deregulation

Dylan DelliSanti for AdamSmitWorks

“Deregulation” frequently conjures up the image of rich CEOs freed to do as they please without restraint or punishment like some sort of corporate Wild West. The regulation/deregulation dichotomy creates the impression that regulated markets are stable and orderly whereas deregulated markets are chaotic and wild.

Smith's Scientific Milestones

Graham McAleer for AdamSmithWorks
 
In this piece we consider the possible impact of major events in the sciences upon Adam Smith’s thought.  

Adam Smith and the Presumption of Liberty

Jon Murphy for AdamSmithWorks

Adam Smith was no anarchist. Smith did have a strong presumption of liberty, but this presumption was not absolute. Under certain conditions, a jural superior (such as a sovereign or magistrate) could violate this presumption of liberty and impose a policy that would break the rules of justice.

Drama versus Data- Adam Smith on Description

Sarah Skwire for AdamSmithWorks

People simply don’t respond to data the way they do to drama. Adam Smith—economist and professor of rhetoric—was ideally equipped to understand and explain why.

Is love ridiculous???

Spyridon Tegos for AdamSmithWorks

It is correctly pointed out that Adam Smith condemns love for being exclusive and rejecting any alternative sociability... However, the situation is more complicated than it may appear at first glance. 

Art's Important Moral Work

Graham McAleer for AdamSmithWorks

Adam Smith had a life-long interest in the arts.  He was surely a man of taste.  However, his biographer, Dugald Stewart, suggests Smith’s interest in the arts and fashion was primarily “on account of their connexion with the general principles of the human mind” (Essays on Philosophical Subjects, 173).  Smith, it seems, was ever the theorist.