There was a time when many commentators thought that there was a problem with Adam Smith. The tendency to read Smith’s thought as marred by supposed tensions between the ‘sympathy’ of The Theory of Moral Sentiments (TMS) and the ‘selfishness’ of The Wealth of Nations (WN) has long since been debunked. Smith scholars are coming…
Smith scholarship is split on whether the apparent conflict between self-interest in the Wealth of Nations (WN) and sympathy in the Theory of Moral Sentiments (TMS) indicates an intractable problem or is merely the result of a misunderstanding of Smith’s overall system. This chapter is written as a response both to the believers in das…
The invisible hand means a variety of things to modern writers, who use the phrase loosely to imply the market, the price system, efficiency, laissez-faire, greed is good, and so on (Samuels et. al., 2011; Medema, 2009; Rothschild, 1994). In some circles the invisible hand is referred to with reverence and in others with mockery.…
This chapter discusses Adam Smith’s rhetorical use of the ‘invisible hand’ in the context of his teachings on metaphors as figures of speech in his lectures on Rhetoric (Edinburgh, 1748-51; Glasgow, 1752-64 (LRBL). After Smith died (1790), a strikingly long-period of silence about his three references to an ‘invisible hand’ followed until 1875, when traces…
Is there any reason to devote time or effort to reading (or writing) an additional essay on Adam Smith’s “invisible hand”? Given the plethora of papers (as well as chapters, comments, and asides) dedicated to uncovering, interpreting, explaining, or contextualizing this notable expression, one could be pardoned for responding that, in fact, no such reason…
As is well known, Adam Smith spent about two years in Europe, most of it in France. It was in fact during his stay in Toulouse that he began to work on what became The Wealth of Nations (WN); but what proved decisive for the deepening of his understanding of market processes were his encounters…
Recent paper in IEEE Adam Smithcomputational intelligenceemergent orderinvisible handNeural NetworksoptimizationParticle SwarmRobert NozickSpontaneous orderTuring test
Marking the birth of the gentle professor. In the university of Oxford, the greater part of the public professors have, for these many years, given up altogether even the pretence of teaching. Adam SmithDavid Humedistributed knowledgeinvisible handMoral psychologypolitical economyPropriety and Prosperity: New Studies on the Philosophy of Adam SmithSpontaneous orderTheory of Moral SentimentsWealth of…
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Died on this day 226 years ago — check out Propriety and Prosperity: New Studies on the Philosophy of Adam Smith for a collection of specially commissioned chapters from philosophers, economists, and political scientists, focusing on Adam Smith’s two main works Theory of Moral Sentiments and Wealth of Nations with a view to bringing Smith to a mainstream…
