How Adam Smith Can Change Your Life

How Adam Smith Can Change Your Life
Author: Russ Roberts
Publisher: Portfolio
Total Pages: 274
Release: 2015-10-13
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1591847958

"How the insights of an 18th century economist can help us live better in the 21st century. Adam Smith became famous for The Wealth of Nations, but the Scottish economist also cared deeply about our moral choices and behavior--the subjects of his other brilliant book, The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759). Now, economist Russ Roberts shows why Smith's neglected work might be the greatest self-help book you've never read. Roberts explores Smith's unique and fascinating approach to fundamental questions such as: - What is the deepest source of human satisfaction? - Why do we sometimes swing between selfishness and altruism? - What's the connection between morality and happiness? Drawing on current events, literature, history, and pop culture, Roberts offers an accessible and thought-provoking view of human behavior through the lenses of behavioral economics and philosophy"--

The Ethical System of Adam Smith

The Ethical System of Adam Smith
Author: Ethel Muir
Publisher: Forgotten Books
Total Pages: 72
Release: 2018-03-03
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9780666807380

Excerpt from The Ethical System of Adam Smith: Thesis Presented to the Faculty of Cornell University for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy, May, 1896 In treating of the ethical system of Adam Smith I have found it necessary to introduce at some length the views of several of his predecessors, in order to show the source and to trace the development of fundamental principles emphasized in the any of t/ze Moral Sentiments. This reference to previous systems was also necessary in order to bring out the independent contribution which Smith himself made to English ethical thought. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

The Theory of Moral Sentiments

The Theory of Moral Sentiments
Author: Adam Smith
Publisher: Courier Corporation
Total Pages: 370
Release: 2012-08-31
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0486119580

DIVThis 1749 work features highly original theories of conscience, moral judgment, and virtue. It reconstructs the Enlightenment concept of social science, embracing both political economy and theories of law and government. /div

Adam Smith's Science of Morals

Adam Smith's Science of Morals
Author: Tom Campbell
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 243
Release: 2014-05-12
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1135174873

This critical exposition of Adam Smith’s Theory of Moral Sentiments, first published in 1971, gives an appreciation of Smith’s conception of scientific method as applied to the study of social phenomena. The work is placed in the context of Smith’s other writings including of course The Wealth of Nations, but making special use of the theory of scientific development contained in his posthumous work, Essays on Philosophical Subjects. By concentrating on Smith’s methodological approach to the study of society, this book provides an illuminating interpretation of his moral theory and defends it against any mistaken criticisms. It also includes a much needed analysis of the important differences between Smith’s ‘impartial spectator’ and the ‘ideal observer’ of modern ethical society. The result is a pointed study, bringing out the close connection between his moral, legal and ethical theories, which will be welcomed by all students of 18th century thought, specialists in moral theory, and the interested lay-reader.

Adam Smith's Moral Philosophy

Adam Smith's Moral Philosophy
Author: Jerry Evensky
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 364
Release: 2005-10-03
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1139446770

Adam Smith is the best known among economists for his book, The Wealth of Nations, often viewed as the keystone of modern economic thought. For many he has become associated with a quasi-libertarian laissez-faire philosophy. Others, often heterodox economists and social philosophers, on the contrary, focus on Smith's Theory of Moral Sentiments, and explore his moral theory. There has been a long debate about the relationship or lack thereof between these, his two great works. This work treats these dimensions of Smith's work as elements in a seamless moral philosophical vision, demonstrating the integrated nature of these works and Smith's other writings. This book weaves Smith into a constructive critique of modern economic analysis (engaging along the way the work of Nobel Laureates Gary Becker, Amarty Sen, Douglass North, and James Buchanan) and builds bridges between that discourse and the other social sciences.

The Adam Smith Problem

The Adam Smith Problem
Author: Dogan Göçmen
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 199
Release: 2007-06-29
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0857710028

This is the first scholarly work to deal solely with the Adam Smith problem, namely the apparent contradiction between Adam Smith's most famous works, "The Theory of Moral Sentiments" and "The Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations". Since the 1840s scholars have puzzled over and attempted to explain the fact that these works offer two fundamentally different and contradictory concepts of human nature. In this radical new approach Do an Gocmen argues that there are, indeed, two different concepts of human nature; in "The Theory of Moral Sentiments", Smith advocates a broad synchronization of human intention and behaviour under a beneficent providence in a system of mutual sympathy, whereas "Wealth of Nations" is a critical account of the human situation of the individual and is an egoistic description of human beings in commercial society. Gocmen argues that Smith does indeed put forward two different and varied ideas, arguing that the ethical position articulated in "The Theory of Moral Sentiments" can be, and was intended by Smith to be, applied as a basis for criticising the commercial society analysed in the "Wealth of Nations". Gocmen argues that this ethical position points to the character of its ideal future replacement, that of Adam Smith's Utopia. Gocmen therefore dismisses as short-sighted and oversimple the common assumption that Adam Smith's Utopia consists merely of 'the invisible hand', the idea that markets would regulate everything if left to their own dynamics. This book challenges the traditional approach to Adam Smith and is the first contribution to the solution of a long-standing debate, making it essential reading for anyone wanting to understand the moral philosophy, political economy and utopian thought of Adam Smith.

Adam Smith's System of Liberty, Wealth, and Virtue

Adam Smith's System of Liberty, Wealth, and Virtue
Author: Athol Fitzgibbons
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 223
Release: 1995-07-20
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0198289235

This book examines the influence that Adam Smith's philosophy had on his economics, drawing on the neglected parts of Smith's writings to show that the political and economic theories built logically on his morals. It analyses the significance of his stoic beliefs, his notions of art and music, astronomy, philosophy and war, and shows that Smith's invisible hand was part of a 'system' that was meant to replace medieval Christianity with ethic of virtue in this world rather than the next. Smith was motivated primarily by a political ideal, a moral version of liberalism. He rejected the political philosophy of the Greeks and Christians as authoritarian and unworldly, but contrary to what many economists believe, he also rejected the amoral liberalism that was being advocated by his countryman and friend David Hume. Far from being myopic about self-love, Smith arrived at his theories of free trade, economic growth, and alienation via his reinterpretation of Stoic virtue. Of interest to economists, philosophers, political theorists, sociologists and lawyers concerned with jurisprudence, this book is clearly written, and its innovations reveal the hitherto hidden unity in Smith's overarching system of morals, politics and economics.