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'A superb book' Financial Times, Books of the Year Adam Smith is now widely regarded as 'the father of modern economics' and the most influential economist who ever lived. But what he really thought, and what the implications of his ideas are, remain fiercely contested. Was he an eloquent advocate of capitalism and the freedom of the individual? Or a prime mover of 'market fundamentalism' and an apologist for inequality and human selfishness? Or something else entirely? Jesse Norman's brilliantly conceived \book gives us not just Smith's economics, but his vastly wider intellectual project. Against the turbulent backdrop of Enlightenment Scotland, it lays out a succinct and highly engaging a...
Modern notions of empathy often celebrate its ability to bridge divides, to unite humankind. But how do we square this with the popular view that we can never truly comprehend the experience of being someone else? In this book, Samuel Fleischacker delves into the work of Adam Smith to draw out an understanding of empathy that respects both personal difference and shared humanity. After laying out a range of meanings for the concept of empathy, Fleischacker proposes that what Smith called “sympathy” is very much what we today consider empathy. Smith’s version has remarkable value, as his empathy calls for entering into the perspective of another—a uniquely human feat that connects people while still allowing them to define their own distinctive standpoints. After discussing Smith’s views in relation to more recent empirical and philosophical studies, Fleischacker shows how turning back to Smith promises to enrich, clarify, and advance our current debates about the meaning and uses of empathy.
This edition contains generous selections from all five volumes of The Wealth of Nations, and places Smith's inquiry into its historical, intellectual, and cultural context.
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, where...
A benchmark in the history of economics and of political ideas, Rothschild shows us the origins of laissez-faire economic thought and its relation to political conseratism in an unquiet world.
'A fun, fascinating, and original book that will challenge you to become a better version of yourself' Daniel H. Pink, author of Drive What does it take to be truly happy? Should we pursue fame and fortune or the respect of our friends and family? How can we make the world a better place? Two hundred and fifty years ago, Adam Smith addressed these fundamental questions in his life-long project, The Theory of Modern Sentiments. Dwarfed by the success of Smith's masterpiece The Wealth of Nations, The Theory of Modern Sentiments has been virtually forgotten. But when Russ Roberts finally picked up the epic tome, he realized he'd stumbled upon the greatest self-help book that almost no one has read. In How Adam Smith Can Change Your Life, Roberts reinvigorates the neglected classic to unearth a treasure trove of timeless, practical wisdom that cuts to the core of what it means to be human. It will challenge you to think about the way you treat others, the decisions you make in pursuit of happiness, and your place in the world.