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ADAM SMITH (1723–1790)

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Originally appearing in Volume V25, Page 259 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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ADAM See also:SMITH (1723–1790)  , See also:English economist, was the only See also:child of See also:Adam See also:Smith, See also:comptroller of the customs at See also:Kirkcaldy in Fifeshire, See also:Scotland, and of See also:Margaret See also:Douglas, daughter of -Mr Douglas of Strathendry, near See also:Leslie . He was See also:born at Kirkcaldy on the 5th of See also:June 1723, some months after the See also:death of his See also:father . When he was three years old he was taken on a visit to his See also:uncle at Strathendry, and when playing alone was carried off by a party of " tinkers." He was at once missed, and the vagrants pursued and overtaken in Leslie See also:wood . He received his See also:early See also:education in the school of Kirkcaldy under See also:David See also:Miller, amongst whose pupils were many who were afterwards distinguished men . Smith showed See also:great fondness for books and remarkable See also:powers of memory; and he was popular among his schoolfellows . He was sent in 1737 to the university of See also:Glasgow, where he attended the lectures of Dr See also:Hutcheson; and in 1740 he went to Balliol See also:College, See also:Oxford, as exhibitioner on See also:Snell's See also:foundation . He remained at that university for seven years . At Glasgow his favourite studies had been See also:mathematics and natural See also:philosophy; but at Oxford he appears to have devoted himself almost entirely to moral and See also:political See also:science and to See also:ancient and See also:modern See also:languages . He also laboured to improve his English See also:style by See also:translation, particularly from the See also:French . After his return to Kirkcaldy he resided there two years with his See also:mother, continuing his studies, not having yet adopted any See also:plan for his future See also:life . In 1748 he removed to See also:Edinburgh, and there, under the patronage of See also:Lord See also:Kames, gave lectures on See also:rhetoric and belles-lettres . About this See also:time began his acquaintance with David See also:Hume, which afterwards ripened into friendship .

In 1751 he was elected See also:

professor of See also:logic at Glasgow, and in 1752 was transferred to the See also:chair of moral philosophy, which had become vacant by the death of See also:Thomas See also:Craigie, the successor of Hutcheson . This position he occupied for nearly twelve years, which he See also:long afterwards declared to have been " by far the most useful, and therefore by far the happiest and most See also:honourable See also:period of his life." His course of lectures was divided into four parts—(1) natural See also:theology; (2) See also:ethics; (3) a treatment of that See also:branch of morality which relates to See also:justice, a subject which he handled historically after the manner of See also:Montesquieu; (4) - a study of those political regulations which are founded, not upon the principle of justice, but that of expediency, and which are calculated to increase the riches, the See also:power and the prosperity of a See also:state . Under this view he considered the political institutions See also:relating to See also:commerce, to finances, to ecclesiastical and military establishments . He first appeared as an author by contributing two articles to the Edinburgh See also:Review (an earlier See also:journal than the See also:present, which was commenced in 1755, but of which only two See also:numbers' were published),-one on See also:Johnson's See also:Dictionary and the other a See also:letter to the editors on-the state of literature in the different countries of See also:Europe . In 1759 appeared his Theory of Moral Sentiments, embodying the second portion of his university course, to which was added in the 2nd edition an appendix with the See also:title, " Considerations concerning the first Formation of Languages." After the publication of this See also:work his ethical doctrines occupied less space in his lectures, and a larger development was given to the subjects of See also:jurisprudence and political See also:economy . See also:Stewart gives us to understand that he had, as -early as 1752, adopted the liberal views of commercial policy which he afterwards preached; and this we should have been inclined to believe independently from the fact that such views 1 These two numbers were reprinted in 1818 . Smith's letter to the editors is specially interesting for its See also:account of the Encyclopedie and its See also:criticism of See also:Rousseau's pictures of See also:savage life . were propounded in that See also:year in the Political Discourses of Hume . In 1762 the senatus academicus of Glasgow conferred on him the honorary degree of See also:doctor of See also:laws . In 1763 he was invited to take See also:charge of the See also:young See also:duke of See also:Buccleuch on his travels . He accepted, and resigned his professorship . He went abroad with his See also:pupil in See also:February 1764; they remained only a few days at See also:Paris and then settled at See also:Toulouse, at that time the seat of a See also:parlement, where they spent eighteen months in the best society of the See also:place, afterwards making a tour in the See also:south of See also:France and passing two months at See also:Geneva .

Returning to Paris about See also:

Christmas of 1765, they remained there till the See also:October of the following year . Smith at this time lived in the society of See also:Quesnay, See also:Turgot, d'See also:Alembert, See also:Morellet, Helvetius, See also:Marmontel and the duke de in Rochefoucauld . His regard for the young nobleman' last named dictated the omission in the later See also:editions of his Moral Sentiments of the name of the celebrated ancestor of the duke, whom he had associated with See also:Mandeville as author of one of the " licentious systems " reviewed in the seventh See also:part of that work . Smith was much influenced by his contact with the members of the physiocratic school, especially with its See also:chief, though See also:Dupont de See also:Nemours probably goes too far in speaking of Smith and himself as having been " See also:con-disciples chez M . Quesnay." Smith afterwards described Quesnay as a See also:man " of the greatest modesty and simplicity," and declared his See also:system of political economy to be, " with all its imperfections, the nearest approximation to truth that had yet been published on the principles of that science." In October 1766 See also:tutor and pupil returned See also:home, and they ever afterwards retained strong feelings of mutual esteem . For the next ten years Smith lived with his mother at Kirkcaldy, only paying occasional visits to Edinburgh and See also:London; he was engaged in See also:close study during most of this time . He describes himself to Hume during this period as being extremely happy . He was occupied on his Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the See also:Wealth of Nations, which there is some See also:reason for believing he had begun at Toulouse . That great work appeared in 1776.2 After its publication, and only a few months before his own death, Hume wrote to congratulate his friend—" Euge! belle! dear Mr Smith, I am much pleased with your performance, and the perusal of it has taken me from a state of great anxiety . It was a work of so much expectation, by yourself, by your See also:friends, and by the public, that I trembled for its See also:appearance, but am now much relieved . Not but that the See also:reading of it necessarily requires so much See also:attention, and the public is disposed to give so little, that I shall still doubt for some time of its being at first very popular, but it has See also:depth, and solidity, and acuteness, and is so much illustrated by curious facts that it must at last attract the public attention." Smith attended Hume during a part of his last illness, and soon after the death of the philosopher there was published, along with his autobiography a letter from Smith to W . Strahan (Smith's publisher) in which he gave an account of the closing scenes of his friend's life and expressed warm admiration for his See also:character .

This letter excited some rancour among the theologians, and Dr See also:

George See also:Horne, afterwards See also:bishop of See also:Norwich, published in 1777 A Letter to Adam Smith on the Life, Death and Philosophy of his Friend David Hume, by one of the See also:people called Christians . But Smith took no See also:notice of this effusion ? He was also attacked by See also:Arch- 1 The duke undertook a translation of the Theory of Moral Sentiments, but the See also:Abbe Blavet's version appeared (1774) before his was completed and he then relinquished the See also:design . An earlier French translation had been published (1764) under the title See also:Meta physique de fame; and there is a later one—the best—by the See also:marquis de See also:Condorcet (1798, 2nd ed., 1830) . 2 J . E . Thorold See also:Rogers published in the See also:Academy, 28th February 1885, a letter of Smith to See also:William Pulteney, written in 1772, from which he thought it probable that the work See also:lay " unrevised and unaltered " in the author's See also:desk for four years . A similar conclusion seems to follow from a letter of Hume in See also:Burton's Life, ii . 461 . 3 A See also:story was told by See also:Sir See also:Walter See also:Scott, and is also related in the Edinburgh Review, of an " unfortunate rencontre," arising out of the publication of the same letter, between Smith and Dr Johnson, during the visit of the latter to Glasgow . The same story is given in a See also:note in See also:Wilberforce's See also:Correspondence, the See also:scene being somewhat vaguely laid in " Scotland." But it cannot be true; for Johnsonbishop W . See also:Magee (1766–1861) for the omission in subsequent editions of a passage of the Moral Sentiments which that See also:prelate had cited with high See also:commendation as among the ablest illustrations of the See also:doctrine of the See also:atonement .

Smith had omitted the See also:

paragraph in question (an omission which had escaped notice for twenty years) on the ground that it was unnecessary and misplaced; but Magee suspected him of having been influenced by deeper reasons . The greater part of the two years which followed the publication of the Wealth of Nations Smith spent in London, enjoying the society of eminent persons, amongst whom were See also:Gibbon, See also:Burke, See also:Reynolds and Topham Beauclerk . In 1778 he was appointed, through the See also:influence of the duke of Buccleuch, one of the commissioners of customs in Scotland, and in consequence of this fixed his See also:residence at Edinburgh . His mother, now in extreme old See also:age, lived with him, as did also his See also:cousin, See also:Miss Jane Douglas, who superintended his See also:household . Much of his now ample in-come is believed to have been spent in See also:secret charities, and he kept a See also:simple table at which, " without the formality of an invitation, he was always happy to receive his friends." " His See also:Sunday suppers," says M`Culloch, " were long celebrated at Edinburgh." One of his favourite places of resort in these years was a See also:club of which Dr See also:Hutton, Dr See also:Black, Dr Adam See also:Ferguson, See also:John Clerk the See also:naval tactician, See also:Robert Adam the architect, as well as Smith himself, were See also:original members, and to which Dugald Stewart, Professor See also:Playfair and other eminent men were after-wards admitted . Another source of enjoyment was his small but excellent library; it is still preserved in his See also:family' In 1787 he was elected lord See also:rector of the university of Glasgow, an See also:honour which he received with " heartfelt joy." If we can believe a note in Wilberforce's Correspondence, he visited London in the See also:spring of the same year, and was introduced by Dundas5 to See also:Pitt, Wilber-force and others . From the death of his mother in 1784, and that of Miss Douglas in 1788, his See also:health declined, and after a painful illness he died on the 17th of See also:July 1790 . Before his decease Smith directed that all his See also:manuscripts except a few selected essays should be destroyed, and they were accordingly committed to the flames . Of the pieces preserved by his See also:desire the most valuable is his See also:tract on the See also:history of See also:astronomy, which he himself described as a " fragment of a great work "; it was doubtless a portion of the " connected history of the liberal sciences and elegant arts " which, we are told, he had projected in early life . Among the papers destroyed were probably, as Stewart suggests, the lectures on natural See also:religion and jurisprudence which formed part of his course at Glasgow, and also the lectures on rhetoric which he delivered at Edinburgh in 1748 . To the latter See also:Hugh See also:Blair seems to refer when, in his work on Rhetoric and Belles-Lettres (1783), he acknowledges his obligations to a See also:manuscript See also:treatise on rhetoric by Smith, part of which its author had shown to him many years before, and which he hoped that Smith would give to the public . Smith had promised at the end of his Theory of Moral Sentiments a treatise on jurisprudence from the See also:historical point of view .

As a moral philosopher Smith cannot be said to have won much See also:

acceptance for his fundamental doctrine . This doctrine is that all our moral sentiments arise from sympathy, that is, from the principle of our nature " which leads us to enter into the situations of other men and to partake with them in the passions which those situations have a tendency to excite." Our See also:direct sympathy with the See also:agent in the circumstances in which he is placed gives rise, according to this view, to our notion of the propriety of his See also:action, whilst our indirect sympathy with those whom his actions have benefited or injured gives rise to our notions of merit and demerit in the agent himself . It seems justly alleged against this system by Dr Thomas See also:Brown that " the moral sentiments, the origin of which it ascribes to our secondary feelings of See also:mere sympathy, are assumed as previously existing in the original emotions with which the secondary feelings are said to be in unison." A second objection urged, perhaps with less justice, against the theory is that it fails to account for the made his tour in 1773, whilst Hume's death did not take place till 1776 . Smith seems not to have met Johnson in Scotland at all . It appears, however, from See also:Boswell's Life, under date of 29th See also:April 1778, that Johnson had on one occasion quarrelled with Smith at Strahan's See also:house, apparently in London; it is clear that the " unlucky altercation " at Strahan's must have occurred in 1761 or 1763, and could have had nothing to do with the letter on Hume's death . ' See See also:Catalogue of the Library of Adam Smith, edited with notes and introduction, by See also:James See also:Bonar (1894) . 5 An interesting letter of Smith to Dundas (1st See also:November 1779) on See also:free See also:trade for See also:Ireland is printed in the Eng . Hist . Review, No . 2 . authoritative character which is See also:felt to be inherent in our sense of right and wrong—for what See also:Butler calls the " supremacy of See also:conscience." It is on the Wealth of Nations that Smith's fame rests . But it must at once be said that it is plainly contrary to fact to represent him, as some have done, as the creator of political economy .

The subject of social wealth had always in some degree, and increasingly in See also:

recent times, engaged the attention of philosophic minds . The study had even indisputably assumed a systematic character, and, from being an assemblage of fragmentary disquisitions on particular questions of See also:national See also:interest, had taken the See also:form, notably in Turgot's Reflexions, of an organized See also:body of doctrine . The truth is that Smith took up the science when it was already considerably advanced; and it was this very circumstance which enabled him, by the See also:production of a classical treatise, to render most of his predecessors obsolete . Even those who do not fall into the See also:error of making Smith the creator of the science, often See also:separate him too broadly from Quesnay and his followers, and represent the history of modern See also:economics as consisting of the successive rise and reign of three doctrines—the See also:mercantile, the physiocratic and the Smithian . The last two are, it is true, at variance in some even important respects . But it is evident, and Smith himself felt, that their agreements were much more fundamental than their See also:differences; and, if we regard them as historical forces, they must be considered as working towards identical ends . They both urged society towards the abolition of the previously prevailing See also:industrial policy of See also:European governments; and their arguments against that policy rested essentially on the same grounds . The history of economic See also:opinion in modern times, down to the third See also:decade of the 19th See also:century, is, in fact, strictly See also:bipartite . The first See also:stage is filled with the mercantile system, which was rather a See also:practical pclicy than a speculative doctrine, and which came into existence as the spontaneous growth of social conditions acting on minds not trained to scientific habits . The second stage is occupied with the See also:gradual rise and ultimate ascendancy of another system founded on the See also:idea of the right of the individual to an unimpeded See also:sphere for the exercise of his economic activity . With the latter, which is best designated as the " system of natural See also:liberty," we ought to See also:associate the memory of the physiocrats as well as that of Smith, without, however, maintaining their services to have been equal to his . The teaching of political ecomomy was associated in the Scottish See also:universities with that of moral philosophy .

Smith conceived the entire subject he had to treat in his public lectures as divisible into four heads, the first of which was natural theology, the second ethics, the third jurisprudence; whilst in the See also:

fourth " he examined those political regulations which are founded upon expediency, and which are calculated to increase the riches, the power, and the prosperity of a state." The last two branches of inquiry are regarded as forming but a single body of doctrine in the well-known passage of the Theory of Moral Sentiments in which the author promises to give in another discourse " an account of the See also:general principles of See also:law and See also:government, and of the different revolutions they have undergone in the different ages and periods of society, not only in what concerns justice, but in what concerns See also:police, See also:revenue and arms, and whatever else is the subject of law." This shows how little it was Smith's See also:habit to separate (except provisionally), in his conceptions or his researches, the economic phenomena of society from all the See also:rest . The words above quoted have, indeed, been not unjustly described as containing " an anticipation, wonderful for his period, of general See also:sociology." There has been much discussion on the question—What is the scientific method followed by Smith in his great work ? By some it is considered to have been purely deductive, a view which See also:Buckle has perhaps carried to the greatest extreme . He asserts that in Scotland the inductive method was unknown, and that although Smith spent some of the most important years of his youth in See also:England, where the inductive method was supreme, he yet adopted the deductive method because it was habitually followed in Scotland . That the inductive spirit exercised no influence on Scottish philosophers is certainly nottrue; Montesquieu, whose method is essentially inductive, was in Smith's time closely studied by Smith's See also:fellow-countrymen . What may justly be said of Smith is that the deductive See also:bent was not the predominant character of his mind, nor did his great excellence See also:lie in the " See also:dialectic skill " which Buckle ascribes to him . What strikes us most in his See also:book is his wide and keen observation of social facts, and his perpetual tendency to dwell on these and elicit their significance, instead of See also:drawing conclusions from abstract principles by elaborate chains of reasoning . That Smith does, however, largely employ the deductive method is certain; and that method is legitimate when the premises from which the See also:deduction sets out are known universal facts of human nature and properties of See also:external See also:objects . But there is another See also:species of deduction which, as Cliffe Leslie has shown, seriously tainted the philosophy of Smith—in which the premises are not facts ascertained by observation, but the a priori assumptions which we found in the physiocrats . In his view, Nature has made See also:provision for social wellbeing by the principle of the human constitution which prompts every man to better his See also:condition: the individual aims only at his private gain, but is " led by an invisible See also:hand " to promote the public See also:good; human institutions, by interfering with this principle in the name of the public interest, defeat their own end; but, when all systems of preference or See also:restraint are taken away, " the obvious and simple system of natural liberty establishes itself of its own See also:accord." This theory is, of course, not explicitly presented by Smith as a foundation of his economic doctrines, but it is really the secret substratum on which they rest . Yet, whilst such latent postulates warped his view of things, they did not entirely determine his method . His native bent towards the study of things as they are preserved him from extravagances into which many of his followers have fallen .

But besides this, as Leslie has pointed out, the influence of Montesquieu tended to counterbalance the theoretic prepossessions produced by the doctrine of the See also:

jus naturae . We are even informed that Smith himself in his later years was occupied in preparing a commentary on the Esprit See also:des lois . He was thus affected by two different and incongruous systems of thought—one setting out from an imaginary See also:code of nature