Adam Smith and His Legacy for Modern Capitalism

Adam Smith and His Legacy for Modern Capitalism PDF Author: Patricia Hogue Werhane
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 248

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Book Description
This book reexamines Adam Smith's major works from a philosophical point of view. Werhane shows how Smith's three major works, The Theory of Moral Sentiments, Lectures on Jurisprudence, and The Wealth of Nations present a progressive and unified set of theses. This careful study attacks the caricature of Adam Smith as a radical individualist who argued that government should play no role in economic affairs, and that the market is autonomous and self-regulating. Werhane shows that Smith argues that human beings are not motivated merely by self-interest in economic affairs nor is the market an autonomous regulator. An economy functions adequately only when free economic actors act with prudence, when there is cooperation and coordination of competitive activities, and where competition is balanced in the context of a societal framework of justice. Werhane argues that a careful reading of Smith's major works show that it is justice, not self-interest or benevolence, that is the most basic virtue to Smith, and that a system of natural jurisprudence is necessary for a viable as well as an ideal political economy.

Adam Smith and His Legacy for Modern Capitalism

Adam Smith and His Legacy for Modern Capitalism PDF Author: Patricia Hogue Werhane
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 248

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book reexamines Adam Smith's major works from a philosophical point of view. Werhane shows how Smith's three major works, The Theory of Moral Sentiments, Lectures on Jurisprudence, and The Wealth of Nations present a progressive and unified set of theses. This careful study attacks the caricature of Adam Smith as a radical individualist who argued that government should play no role in economic affairs, and that the market is autonomous and self-regulating. Werhane shows that Smith argues that human beings are not motivated merely by self-interest in economic affairs nor is the market an autonomous regulator. An economy functions adequately only when free economic actors act with prudence, when there is cooperation and coordination of competitive activities, and where competition is balanced in the context of a societal framework of justice. Werhane argues that a careful reading of Smith's major works show that it is justice, not self-interest or benevolence, that is the most basic virtue to Smith, and that a system of natural jurisprudence is necessary for a viable as well as an ideal political economy.

Adam Smith

Adam Smith PDF Author: Ryan Hanley
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400873487
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 597

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Book Description
The essential guide to the life, thought, and legacy of Adam Smith Adam Smith (1723–90) is perhaps best known as one of the first champions of the free market and is widely regarded as the founding father of capitalism. From his ideas about the promise and pitfalls of globalization to his steadfast belief in the preservation of human dignity, his work is as relevant today as it was in the eighteenth century. Here, Ryan Hanley brings together some of the world's finest scholars from across a variety of disciplines to offer new perspectives on Smith's life, thought, and enduring legacy. Contributors provide succinct and accessible discussions of Smith's landmark works and the historical context in which he wrote them, the core concepts of Smith's social vision, and the lasting impact of Smith's ideas in both academia and the broader world. They reveal other sides of Smith beyond the familiar portrayal of him as the author of the invisible hand, emphasizing his deep interests in such fields as rhetoric, ethics, and jurisprudence. Smith emerges not just as a champion of free markets but also as a thinker whose unique perspective encompasses broader commitments to virtue, justice, equality, and freedom. An essential introduction to Adam Smith's life and work, this incisive and thought-provoking book features contributions from leading figures such as Nicholas Phillipson, Amartya Sen, and John C. Bogle. It demonstrates how Smith's timeless insights speak to contemporary concerns such as growth in the developing world and the future of free trade, and how his influence extends to fields ranging from literature and philosophy to religion and law.

Adam Smith’s America

Adam Smith’s America PDF Author: Glory M. Liu
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691240876
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 384

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Book Description
The unlikely story of how Americans canonized Adam Smith as the patron saint of free markets Originally published in 1776, Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations was lauded by America’s founders as a landmark work of Enlightenment thinking about national wealth, statecraft, and moral virtue. Today, Smith is one of the most influential icons of economic thought in America. Glory Liu traces how generations of Americans have read, reinterpreted, and weaponized Smith’s ideas, revealing how his popular image as a champion of American-style capitalism and free markets is a historical invention. Drawing on a trove of illuminating archival materials, Liu tells the story of how an unassuming Scottish philosopher captured the American imagination and played a leading role in shaping American economic and political ideas. She shows how Smith became known as the father of political economy in the nineteenth century and was firmly associated with free trade, and how, in the aftermath of the Great Depression, the Chicago School of Economics transformed him into the preeminent theorist of self-interest and the miracle of free markets. Liu explores how a new generation of political theorists and public intellectuals has sought to recover Smith’s original intentions and restore his reputation as a moral philosopher. Charting the enduring fascination that this humble philosopher from Scotland has held for American readers over more than two centuries, Adam Smith’s America shows how Smith continues to be a vehicle for articulating perennial moral and political anxieties about modern capitalism.

Adam Smith's Pluralism

Adam Smith's Pluralism PDF Author: Jack Russell Weinstein
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300163754
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 464

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Book Description
In this thought-provoking study, Jack Russell Weinstein suggests the foundations of liberalism can be found in the writings of Adam Smith (1723-1790), a pioneer of modern economic theory and a major figure in the Scottish Enlightenment. While offering an interpretive methodology for approaching Smith's two major works, "The Theory of Moral Sentiments "and "The Wealth of Nations," Weinstein argues against the libertarian interpretation of Smith, emphasizing his philosophies of education and rationality. Weinstein also demonstrates that Smith should be recognized for a prescient theory of pluralism that prefigures current theories of cultural diversity.

Adam Smith's Lost Legacy

Adam Smith's Lost Legacy PDF Author: G. Kennedy
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 0230511198
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 298

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Book Description
In this accessible book, Gavin Kennedy takes a fresh look at Adam Smith's moral philosophy and its links to his political economy and his lectures on Jurisprudence. The book provides a new analysis of Wealth of Nations , and argues that Adam Smith's intellectual legacy was completely transformed in the Nineteenth and Twentieth centuries by economists pursuing different agendas, to create ideas and policies that Smith did not advocate. It also provides a new explanation for the main mysteries about Smith's later life.

Our Great Purpose

Our Great Purpose PDF Author: Ryan Hanley
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691216703
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 168

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Book Description
Invaluable wisdom on living a good life from the founder of modern economics.

On Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations

On Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations PDF Author: Samuel Fleischacker
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400826055
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 347

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Book Description
Adam Smith was a philosopher before he ever wrote about economics, yet until now there has never been a philosophical commentary on the Wealth of Nations. Samuel Fleischacker suggests that Smith's vastly influential treatise on economics can be better understood if placed in the light of his epistemology, philosophy of science, and moral theory. He lays out the relevance of these aspects of Smith's thought to specific themes in the Wealth of Nations, arguing, among other things, that Smith regards social science as an extension of common sense rather than as a discipline to be approached mathematically, that he has moral as well as pragmatic reasons for approving of capitalism, and that he has an unusually strong belief in human equality that leads him to anticipate, if not quite endorse, the modern doctrine of distributive justice. Fleischacker also places Smith's views in relation to the work of his contemporaries, especially his teacher Francis Hutcheson and friend David Hume, and draws out consequences of Smith's thought for present-day political and philosophical debates. The Companion is divided into five general sections, which can be read independently of one another. It contains an index that points to commentary on specific passages in Wealth of Nations. Written in an approachable style befitting Smith's own clear yet finely honed rhetoric, it is intended for professional philosophers and political economists as well as those coming to Smith for the first time.

After Adam Smith

After Adam Smith PDF Author: Murray Milgate
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691152349
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 318

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Book Description
'After Adam Smith' looks at how politics & political economy were articulated & altered in the century following the publication of Smith's 'Wealth of Nations'.

Capitalism as a Moral System

Capitalism as a Moral System PDF Author: Spencer J. Pack
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781849801294
Category : Capitalism
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
This powerful and thoroughly documented book overturns many long-held beliefs about Adam Smith. Spencer Pack demonstrates that contrary to popular myth, Adam Smith was not a dogmatic defender of laissez-faire capitalism and neither was he in favour of regressive taxation. The book stresses for the first time the many qualms and problems - indeed the profound ambiguity - which Adam Smith felt toward the capitalist system.

The Opinion of Mankind

The Opinion of Mankind PDF Author: Paul Sagar
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691191514
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 262

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Book Description
How David Hume and Adam Smith forged a new way of thinking about the modern state What is the modern state? Conspicuously undertheorized in recent political theory, this question persistently animated the best minds of the Enlightenment. Recovering David Hume and Adam Smith's long-underappreciated contributions to the history of political thought, The Opinion of Mankind considers how, following Thomas Hobbes's epochal intervention in the mid-seventeenth century, subsequent thinkers grappled with explaining how the state came into being, what it fundamentally might be, and how it could claim rightful authority over those subject to its power. Hobbes has cast a long shadow over Western political thought, particularly regarding the theory of the state. This book shows how Hume and Smith, the two leading lights of the Scottish Enlightenment, forged an alternative way of thinking about the organization of modern politics. They did this in part by going back to the foundations: rejecting Hobbes's vision of human nature and his arguments about our capacity to form stable societies over time. In turn, this was harnessed to a deep reconceptualization of how to think philosophically about politics in a secular world. The result was an emphasis on the "opinion of mankind," the necessary psychological basis of all political organization. Demonstrating how Hume and Smith broke away from Hobbesian state theory, The Opinion of Mankind also suggests ways in which these thinkers might shape how we think about politics today, and in turn how we might construct better political theory.