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Adam Smith: An Enlightened Life (The Lewis Walpole Series in Eighteenth-Century Culture and History) Hardcover – October 5, 2010
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The great eighteenth-century British economist Adam Smith (1723–90) is celebrated as the founder of modern economics. Yet Smith saw himself primarily as a philosopher rather than an economist and would never have predicted that the ideas for which he is now best known were his most important. This biography shows the extent to which Smith's great works, The Wealth of Nations and The Theory of Moral Sentiments, were part of one of the most ambitious projects of the Euruopean Enlightenment, a grand “Science of Man" that would encompass law, history, and aesthetics as well as economics and ethics, and which was only half complete on Smith’s death in 1790.
Nick Phillipson reconstructs Smith’s intellectual ancestry and shows what Smith took from, and what he gave to, in the rapidly changing intellectual and commercial cultures of Glasgow and Edinburgh as they entered the great years of the Scottish Enlightenment. Above all he explains how far Smith’s ideas developed in dialogue with those of his closest friend, the other titan of the age, David Hume.
- Print length368 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherYale University Press
- Publication dateOctober 5, 2010
- Dimensions6.13 x 1.31 x 9.25 inches
- ISBN-100300169272
- ISBN-13978-0300169270
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"An unabashedly intellectual biography . . . [written] in graceful prose. . . . For all that subsequent generations, no less our own, have taken from Smith's economic contributions, it is indeed enlightening to understand the broader sweep of his vision."--Nancy F. Koehn, New York Times (Nancy F. Koehn New York Times)
“Lively [and] well-observed. . . . It would take a ‘skilful pencil’ to bring Smith to life, warned one of his friends. In bringing Smith’s ideas to life, Phillipson shows that his pencilwork is skilful indeed. ”—The Economist (The Economist)
"Remarkable, often brilliant. . . stuffed with acute philosophical observations. But no less fascinating is the portrait of the milieu in which Smith lived. . . . Phillipson's exposition of [Smith's] 'enlightened life' can scarcely be bettered."—The Times (London) (The Times (London))
"[Nicholas Phillipson] tries, very successfully, to pull together the two Smiths, letting us see how the man of feeling became the little god of finance. . . making it plain that Smith was more moral-man than market-man."—Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker (Adam Gopnik The New Yorker 2010-10-18)
"One good reason to read Nicholas Phillipson's excellent intellectual biography is to gain a more nuanced understanding of Smith and, in particular, of his vision of an all-embracing science of man. . . . When Phillipson discusses The Wealth of Nations, it's hard not to discern parallels between Smith's time and our own."—Michael Dirda, Washington Post (Michael Dirda Washington Post)
"This year, my favorite business book was Nicholas Phillipson's biography of Adam Smith. It showed that Smith is still the greatest economist of all time, wise about human nature, and that he understands the power of capitalism."—Tyler Cowen, NPR's "Marketplace" (Tyler Cowen NPR's Marketplace)
Named a Favorite Business Book of 2010 by James Pressley, Bloomberg BusinessWeek (James Pressley Bloomberg Business Week)
Named a Best Book of 2010 by the Atlantic (Atlantic Monthly)
Named aCritics' Favorite Book of 2010—The New Yorker (New Yorker)
Named a Best Business Book of 2010 by Tyler Cowen, NPR's "Marketplace" (Tyler Cowen NPR's Marketplace)
"In a feast of both writing and erudition, Nicholas Phillipson has recreated the intellectual and mercantile world of Adam Smith, and shows how it shaped Smith's two masterpieces, the Theory of Moral Sentiments and the Wealth of Nations. He sets Smith's economics firmly in the philosophy of the Scottish Enlightenment – and especially of his great friend David Hume – and argues compellingly that for Smith material improvement was not an end in itself, but a necessary condition for human ennoblement, which was the grand aim of his life's work. A wonderful, thought-provoking book."—Robert Skidelsky, biographer of John Maynard Keynes (Robert Skidelsky)
"Nicholas Phillipson's lifelong study of Adam Smith has been well worth waiting for. Phillipson treats Smith's The Wealth of Nations as the sequel to his Theory of Moral Sentiments. Political economy and the history of society were handmaids to the moral philosophy which Enlightenment thinkers intended as the replacement of religion. This story has never been better told than in this deeply sympathetic biography of an intellectually ambitious but personally modest man, and it is a superb portrait of the Scotland, Britain and Europe he lived in."— J.G.A. Pocock, Johns Hopkins University (J.G.A. Pocock)
"This stylish biography brings to life Adam Smith's breathtaking ambition to create a Science of Man. Phillipson's elegant prose and erudition make clear the necessary relationship between Smith's moral philosophy and his political economy. The reader is left with a deeper appreciation for Smith's project and for the eighteenth-century Scottish world in which he lived. This book is both a delight to read and agenda-setting. A real achievement!"—Steve Pincus, Yale University (Steve Pincus)
"This is easily the best book on Smith I’ve read: a wonderfully accessible, thoroughly researched, full-bodied drama examining the philosopher and economist. Phillipson’s biography presents Smith as a living personality, not just an imposing intellect, tracking his social, economic, and political moves from his birthplace Kirkcaldy, to Glasgow and Oxford, through his various lectures and professorships, travels around Europe, preparation of The Wealth of Nations, and finally to his work for the government. In doing so, it makes a strong case for the importance and complexity – perhaps primacy – of the Scottish Enlightenment and the men who contributed to it. In clean and clear prose, Phillipson explains what Smith was writing and why he was writing it, whether moral philosophy, jurisprudence, rhetoric or political economy. This beguiling blend of Smith’s intellection and experience should appeal to anyone interested in the making of the modern world."—David Hancock, author of Oceans of Wine: Madeira and the Emergence of American Trade and Taste
(David Hancock)
"[A] great achievement. . . . Few books have shed better light on what Smith 'meant' and why he wrote as he did."—Scotland on Sunday (Scotland on Sunday)
"The myth of Adam Smith is that he was the hard-nosed high priest of self-interested capitalism. [Phillipson] shows that his intellectual goals were far greater and nobler. . . . Phillipson has portrayed an Adam Smith for our times."—New Statesman (New Statesman)
"The Smith who emerges from this thoughtful study. . . had an intellect of extraordinary brilliance, and it is the life of that intellect that is finely portrayed in this book."—Sunday Telegraph (London) (Sunday Telegraph (London))
"Phillipson's path-breaking biography shines new light on the complex development of this much-misunderstood thinker."—The Independent (London) (The Independent (London))
"Phillipson has been studying [the Scottish Enlightenment], this explosion of genius, all his life, and is a trustworthy guide to the life of Adam Smith."—Financial Times (Financial Times)
"Having failed so royally to predict or ameliorate our present distress, some economists may come to examine their assumptions and be drawn to this fine book and its mighty subject."—The Guardian (London) (The Guardian (London))
"Drawing on Smith's published works and student notes from his lectures, Phillipson shows how Smith's thinking on social theory and ethics influenced his system of economics. . . . what Phillipson calls a 'vast intellectual project.' "—Bloomberg Business Week (Bloomberg Business Week)
"An unabashedly intellectual biography. . . . It is indeed enlightening to understand the broader sweep of [Adam Smith's] vision."—Nancy F. Koehn, New York Times (Nancy F. Koehn New York Times)
"An absorbing and elegant account of Smith's mind and of the Scottish context, social and intellectual, that produced it."—Blair Worden, The Spectator (London) (Blair Worden The Spectator)
"For scholars. . . Adam Smith: An Enlightened Life should prove a very valuable resource. For more general audiences there is much to appreciate here--fine prose, erudite consideration of Enlightenment thought, and a consistently engaging narrative."—PopMatters
(PopMatters)
"Nicholas Phillipson’s new biography, Adam Smith: An Enlightened Life, is a pleasure to read, and it provides us with a clear and thorough account of Smith’s life."—Samuel Fleischacker, Journal of British Studies (Samuel Fleischacker Journal of British Studies)
Winner of the 2011-2013 Annibel Jenkins Prize, given by the American Society for the 18th Century Studies. (2011-2013 Annibel Jenkins Prize American Society for the 18th Century Studies 2013-01-25)
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Product details
- Publisher : Yale University Press; First Edition (October 5, 2010)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 368 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0300169272
- ISBN-13 : 978-0300169270
- Item Weight : 1.56 pounds
- Dimensions : 6.13 x 1.31 x 9.25 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #2,109,147 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,583 in Philosopher Biographies
- #5,506 in Business Professional's Biographies
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Yale has done justice to this wonderful work. The production is a delight to see and to hold. It provides the best answer to e-books because we buyers will surely enjoying pulling it from our shelves, looking at the illustrations, and reading it again.
While there is little in the way of private writing on which to base anything, because Smith instructed that all his private papers be destroyed at his death, Nicholas Phillipson has written an able biography of the development of Smith's ideas based on his public writings, his unpublished writings, and the notes of several of his students taken down in lecture. The story he tells is fascinating, describing the economic and political circumstances around Smith's life.
The author begins, as with all biographies, in Smith's childhood home and city, Kirkcaldy. Smith lived in the time when Scotland was moving from being a poor country reliant on spinning and meager farms for its economic basis through the industrial revolution, and so his education and thinking were grounded in the experience of those times. He began his life in trying to understand how this massive change came in his world. From here, Smith moved into teaching at a growing college that was closely tied to the town and the town's business interests, so he once again remained on the economic side of academic life -- or rather saw life through an economic and mercantile lens.
The economic history is well known, and well plied in various textbooks. What the author next brings to light is the most interesting: Smith's ties to the Enlightenment. It is the combination of Enlightenment thinking and commercial growth that led to Smith's ultimate quest, to explain the rise of the "moral sentiment," or rather the rise of morality in human society. While many today consider the Enlightenment to be a wide growth of knowledge as science threw off the shackles of religion, the reality is far different.
The Enlightenment, in the end, was removing the Judeo-Christian foundation from science to replace it with another set of religious beliefs, a Deistic/Darwinistic world view that places man at the center of all things. When Smith applied Enlightenment thinking to the economic growth he had seen, he came to the conclusion that morality comes about in human communities because of the need for the rich to protect their goods from the poor -- hence, all morality is essentially based on developing economies.
"Till there be property there can be no government, the very end of which is to secure wealth, and to defend the rich from the poor." -quoted on page 174
Smith was essentially attempting to answer the question, "if there is no God, then why are there morals," without asserting there is no God. Based on this biography, he didn't want to argue against God directly, but rather to simply leave God out in the cold, a small, useless figure that doesn't have any real impact in our actual lives. Man has built it all, from civilization to morals; God need not apply. While the division of labor, Smith's fundamental addition to the body of economic theory, is useful and solid, his theory of morality attempted to find solidity in commerce where it could not be found in the various Enlightenment branches of Darwinistic thought.
This is a very solid and readable biography of a man who has impacted our modern worldview in ways very few people actually understand, and well worth reading.
Adam Smith's thoughts still have direct relevance to today's bucketful of economic problems--and resulting strident political debates--over government's proper role in terms of expenditures, debt, taxation, and business regulations.
While this book concentrates on the scholarship of Adam Smith, the author also intelligently traces the era within which Smith lived and his private life that included such striking people as David Hume, James Boswell, and Voltaire.
In this current age of instant and empty celebrities, Smith still stands, after about 250 years, as a man worth knowing.
The owl of wisdom flies at night. After it's over, then we understand. About capitalism, that's the feeling I get from this book.






