Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
  • Cited by 145
Publisher:
Cambridge University Press
Online publication date:
June 2012
Print publication year:
2002
Online ISBN:
9780511610196

Book description

Adam Smith wrote two books, one about economics and the other about morality. His Wealth of Nations argues for a largely free-market economy, while his Theory of Moral Sentiments argues that human morality develops out of a mutual sympathy that people seek with one another. How do these books go together? How do markets and morality mix? James Otteson's 2002 book provides a comprehensive examination and interpretation of Smith's moral theory and shows how his conception of the nature of morality applies to his understanding of markets, language and other social institutions. Considering Smith's notions of natural sympathy, the impartial spectator, human nature, and human conscience the author also addresses the issue of whether Smith thinks that moral judgments enjoy a transcendent sanction. James Otteson sees Smith's theory of morality as an institution that develops unintentionally but nevertheless in an orderly way according to a market model.

Reviews

‘… a substantial and important study of Adam Smith’s moral theory … ambitious in its scope and coverage …’.

David Lieberman - University of California, Berkeley

‘… rigorously argued, using just the right amount of references and citations, and written in a clear and concise language; the author drives his point home with remarkable effectiveness …’.

Source: Canadian Journal of Political Science

'… this is an important study with a distinctive contribution to debates about the 'Adam Smith problem'; it provides some stimulating arguments that deserve considered attention and will no doubt prompt further debate.'

Source: British Journal for the History of Philosophy

Refine List

Actions for selected content:

Select all | Deselect all
  • View selected items
  • Export citations
  • Download PDF (zip)
  • Save to Kindle
  • Save to Dropbox
  • Save to Google Drive

Save Search

You can save your searches here and later view and run them again in "My saved searches".

Please provide a title, maximum of 40 characters.
×

Contents

Bibliography
Bibliography
Anspach, Ralph. “The Implications of the Theory of Moral Sentiments for Adam Smith's Economic Thought.”History of Political Economy 4 (1972): 176–206
Árdal, P. S. Passion and Value in Hume's Treatise. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1966
Benedict, Ruth. Patterns of Culture (1934). Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1989
Berkeley, George (Bishop). The Principles of Human Knowledge (1710). In Berkeley's Philosophical Writings, David M. Armstrong, ed. New York: Macmillan, 1965
Berlin, Isaiah. Four Essays on Liberty. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1969
Berry, Christopher J. “Adam Smith's Considerations on Language.”Journal of the History of Ideas 35 (1974): 130–38
Berry, Christopher J. Social Theory of the Scottish Enlightenment. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1997
Bethel, Tom. The Noblest Triumph: Property and Prosperity through the Ages. New York: St. Martin's, 1998
Birzer, Bradley J.“Expansive Creative Destruction: Entrepreneurship in the American Wests.”Western Historical Quarterly 30, 1 (Spring 1999): 45–63
Blaug, Mark. Economic Theory in Retrospect, 5th ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996
Bonar, James. Catalogue of Adam Smith's Library (1894). New York: Augustus M. Kelley, 1966
Booth, William J.“On the Idea of the Moral Economy.”American Political Science Review 88, 3 (September 1994): 653–67
Brown, Vivienne. Adam Smith's Discourse: Canonicity, Commerce and Conscience. London: Routledge, 1994
Brown, Vivienne. “‘Mere Inventions of the Imagination’: A Survey of Recent Literature on Adam Smith.”Economics and Philosophy 13 (1997): 281–312
Brugman, Karl. “Der Nominalgeschlect in den indogermanischen Sprachen.”Internationale Zeitschrift für Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft 4 (1888): 101–104
Burke, Edmund. Reflections on the Revolution in France (1789 –90). J. G. A. Pocock, ed. Indianapolis: Hackett, 1987
Burke, Edmund A Vindication of Natural Society (1757). Frank N. Pagano, ed. Indianapolis: Liberty Classics, 1982
Campbell, T. D. Adam Smith's Science of Morals. London: Allen and Unwin, 1971
Cannan, Edwin, ed. Lectures on Justice, Police, Revenue and Arms, delivered in the University of Glasgow by Adam Smith. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1896
Coase, Ronald H.“Adam Smith's View of Man.”Journal of Law and Economics 19 (1976): 538–39
Cohen, G. A. Self-Ownership, Freedom, and Equality. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995
Copley, Stephen, and Sutherland, Kathryn, eds. Adam Smith and the “Wealth of Nations”: New Interdisciplinary Essays. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1995
Cropsey, Joseph. Polity and Economy: An Interpretation of the Principles of Adam Smith. Martinus Nijhoff: The Hague, 1957
Cudworth, Ralph. A Treatise Concerning Eternal and Immutable Morality (1731). In British Moralists 1650–1800, D. D. Raphael, ed. Indianapolis: Hackett, 1991
Danford, John W. David Hume and the Problem of Reason. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990
Dear, I. C. B. Oxford English. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986
Uyl, Douglas J., and Griswold, Charles L., Jr. “Adam Smith on Friendship and Love.”Review of Metaphysics 49 (March 1996): 609–37
Diamond, Jared. Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies. New York: W. W. Norton, 1997
Dickey, Laurence. “Historicizing the ‘Adam Smith Problem’: Conceptual, Historiographical, and Textual Issues.”Journal of Modern History 58 (September 1986): 579–609
Dollar, David, and Kraay, Aart. “Growth Is Good for the Poor.” Washington, DC: World Bank, 2001. Available at http://www.worldbank.org/research/growth/pdfiles/growthgoodforpoor.pdf
Dupuy, Jean-Pierre. “A Reconsideration of Das Adam Smith Problem.”Stanford French Review 17, 1 (1993): 45–57
Etzioni, Amitai. The New Golden Rule: Community and Morality in a Democratic Society. New York: Basic Books, 1998
Etzioni, Amitai ed. New Communitarian Thinking: Persons, Virtues, and Communities. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 1995
Ferguson, Adam. An Essay on the History of Civil Society (1767). New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction, 1995
Firth, Roderick. “Ethical Absolutism and the Ideal Observer.”Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 12, 3 (March 1952): 317–45
Fitzgibbons, Athol. Adam Smith's System of Liberty, Wealth, and Virtue: The Moral and Political Foundations of The Wealth of Nations. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995
Fleischacker, Samuel. “Philosophy in Moral Practice: Kant and Adam Smith.”Kant-Studien 82 (1991): 249–69
Fleischacker, Samuel A Third Concept of Liberty: Judgment and Freedom in Kant and Adam Smith. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1999
Fogel, Robert W. The Fourth Great Awakening and the Future of Egalitarianism. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000
Gauthier, David. Morals by Agreement. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1986
Griswold, Charles L., Jr. Adam Smith and the Virtues of Enlightenment. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999
Griswold, Charles L., Jr. “Religion and Community: Adam Smith on the Virtues of Liberty.”Journal of the History of Philosophy 35, 3 (July 1997): 395–419
Gwartney, J., Lawson, R., and Samida, D. Economic Freedom of the World. Victoria, BC: The Fraser Institute, 2000. Available at http://www.freetheworld.com/release.html
Haakonssen, Knud. The Cambridge Companion to Adam Smith. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, forthcoming
Haakonssen, Knud Natural Law and Moral Philosophy: From Grotius to the Scottish Enlightenment. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996
Haakonssen, Knud The Science of a Legislator: The Natural Jurisprudence of David Hume and Adam Smith. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981
Hamowy, Ronald. The Scottish Enlightenment and the Theory of Spontaneous Order. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 1987
Hayek, F. A. von. The Constitution of Liberty. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1960
Hayek, F. A. von. The Counter-Revolution in Science: Studies on the Abuse of Reason. Indianapolis: Liberty Press, 1979
Hazlitt, Henry. The Foundations of Morality (1964). Irvington-on-Hudson, NY: Foundation for Economic Education, 1994
Heath, Eugene. “The Commerce of Sympathy: Adam Smith on the Emergence of Morals.”Journal of the History of Philosophy 33, 3 (July 1995): 447–66
Heilbroner, Robert L. The Worldly Philosophers. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1953
Hildebrand, Bruno. Die Nationalökonomie der Gegenwart und Zukunft. Jena: G. Fischer, 1848
Hocutt, Max. Grounded Ethics: The Empirical Bases of Normative Judgments. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction, 2000
Holland, John. Hidden Order: How Adaptation Builds Complexity. New York: Addison-Wesley, 1996
Hollander, Samuel. The Economics of Adam Smith. Toronto: University of Toronto, 1973
Hull, David. Science as a Process. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988
Hume, David. “Of Commerce.” In Essays, Moral, Political, and Literary, Eugene F. Miller, ed. Indianapolis: Liberty Press, 1987
Hume, David Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion (1779). Richard H. Popkin, ed. 2nd ed. Indianapolis: Hackett, 1998
Hume, David An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (1748). Eric Steinberg, ed. Indianapolis: Hackett, 1977
Hume, David An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals (1751). J. B. Schneewind, ed. Indianapolis: Hackett, 1983
Hume, David History of England (1778). Indianapolis: Liberty Classics, 1983
Hume, David “Of the Origin of Government.” In Essays, Moral, Political, and Literary, Eugene F. Miller, ed. Indianapolis: Liberty Press, 1987
Hume, David “Of the Original Contract.” In Essays, Moral, Political, and Literary, Eugene F. Miller, ed. Indianapolis: Liberty Press, 1987
Hume, David “Of Taxes.” In Essays, Moral, Political, and Literary, Eugene F. Miller, ed. Indianapolis: Liberty Press, 1987
Hume, David A Treatise of Human Nature (1739 –40). L. A. Selby-Bigge, ed. 2nd ed., with rev. text and notes by P. H. Nidditch. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1978
Hutcheson, Francis. Illustrations upon the Moral Sense (1728). In British Moralists 1650–1800, D. D. Raphael, ed. Indianapolis: Hackett, 1991
Hutcheson, Francis Inquiry Concerning Moral Good and Evil (1725). In British Moralists 1650–1800, D. D. Raphael, ed. Indianapolis: Hackett, 1991
Jones, Gwyn. A History of the Vikings. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1984
Keller, Rudi. On Language Change: The Invisible Hand in Language. London and New York: Routledge, 1994
Khalil, Elias L.“Beyond Natural Selection and Divine Intervention: The Lamarckian Implication of Adam Smith's Invisible Hand.”Journal of Evolutionary Economics 10 (2000): 373–93
Khalil, Elias L. “Evolutionary Biology and Evolutionary Economics.”Journal of Interdisciplinary Economics 8, 4 (1997): 221–44
Kleer, Richard A.“Final Causes in Adam Smith's Theory of Moral Sentiments.”Journal of the History of Philosophy 33 (April 1995): 275–300
Knies, Carl G. A. Die Politische Oekonomie vom Standpunkte der geschichtlichen Methode. Braunschweig: C. S. Schwetschke, 1853
Lal, Deepak. Unintended Consequences. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1998
Land, Stephen K.“Adam Smith's ‘Considerations concerning the First Formation of Languages.’”Journal of the History of Ideas 38 (1977): 677–90
Landes, David S. The Wealth and Poverty of Nations: Why Some Are So Rich and Some Are So Poor. New York: W. W. Norton, 1999
Livingston, Donald W. Hume's Philosophy of Common Life. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984
Locke, John. An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1700). Peter H. Nidditch, ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1975
Lux, Kenneth. Adam Smith's Mistake: How a Moral Philosopher Invented Economics and Ended Morality. Boston: Shambhala, 1990
McCawley, James D.The Biological Side of Otto Jespersen's Linguistic Thought.” Historiographia Linguistica XIX, 1 (1992): 97–110
McCawley, James D. “Review of ‘The Human Language.’”Language 71, 3 (1995): 622–29
Macfarlane, Alan. The Riddle of the Modern World: Of Liberty, Wealth and Equality. London: Macmillan, 2000
Macfie, A. L. The Individual in Society: Papers on Adam Smith. London: Allen and Unwin, 1967
Machan, Tibor R., and Rasmussen, Douglas B., eds. Liberty for the 21st Century: Contemporary Libertarian Thought. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 1995
MacIntyre, Alasdair. After Virtue. Rev. 2nd ed. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1984
Mackie, J. L. Ethics: Inventing Right and Wrong (1977). New York: Viking, 1991
McLuhan, T. C., ed. Touch the Earth: A Self-Portrait of Indian Existence. New York: Outerbridge & Dienstfrey, 1971
Malebranche, Nicolas. De la recherche de la vérité (1674–75). In Malebranche: Philosophical Selections, Steven Nadler, ed. Indianapolis: Hackett, 1992
Mandeville, Bernard. Fable of the Bees: or, Private Vices, Publick Benefits (1714). F. B. Kaye, ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1924
Manley, Michael. “Adam Smith Was Right.”New Perspectives Quarterly 9, 3 (Summer 1992): 46 –51
Martin, Marie A.“Utility and Morality: Adam Smith's Critique of Hume.”Hume Studies 16, 2 (1990): 107–20
Marx, Karl. “Estranged Labour.” Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844. In The Marx-Engels Reader, Robert C. Tucker, ed. New York: W. W. Norton, 1978
Merton, Robert K.“The Unanticipated Consequences of Purposive Social Action.”American Sociological Review 1 (1936): 894–904
Miller, David H. “To Economize on Love: An Alternative Approach to Social Philosophy and Economy.” Available at http://www.foresight.org/essays/econlove.html
Minowitz, Peter. Profits, Priests and Princes. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1993
Morrow, Glenn R. “Adam Smith: Moralist and Philosopher.” In Adam Smith, 1776–1926: Lectures to Commemorate the Sesquicentennial of the Publication of “The Wealth of Nations,” John M. Clark et al., eds. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1928
Muller, Jerry Z. Adam Smith in His Time and Ours: Designing the Decent Society. New York: The Free Press, 1993
Nagel, Thomas. The View from Nowhere. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986
Norlin, Kurt. “What Is an Ideal Observer Theory of Ethics?” Unpublished manuscript: University of California at Irvine, 1995
Nozick, Robert. Anarchy, State, and Utopia. New York: Basic Books, 1974
Oncken, August. “The Consistency of Adam Smith.”Economic Journal of London (1897): 443–50
Otteson, James R.“Adam Smith on the Emergence of Morals: A Reply to Eugene Heath.”British Journal for the History of Philosophy 8, 3 (October 2000): 545–51
Otteson, James R. “Adam Smith's First Market: The Development of Language.” History of Philosophy Quarterly 19, 1 (January 2002): 65–86
Otteson, James R. “Limits on Our Obligation to Give.”Public Affairs Quarterly 14, 3 (July 2000): 183–203
Otteson, James R. “Private Judgment, Individual Liberty, and the Role of the State.” Journal of Social Philosophy (forthcoming)
Otteson, James R. Review of Charles L. Griswold, Jr., Adam Smith and the Virtues of Enlightenment. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research ⅬⅪ, 3 (November 2000): 714–18
Otteson, James R. Review of Samuel Fleischacker, A Third Concept of Liberty: Judgment and Freedom in Kant and Adam Smith. Journal of Social Philosophy 54, 2 (December 2000): 426–28
Pinker, Steven. The Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language. New York: HarperCollins, 1994
Plato. Republic. G. M. A. Grube, trans. Indianapolis: Hackett, 1992
Rae, John. Life of Adam Smith. London: Macmillan, 1895
Raphael, D. D. Adam Smith. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1985
Raphael, D. D. British Moralists 1650–1800. Indianapolis: Hackett, 1991
Raphael, D. D. “The Impartial Spectator.” In Essays on Adam Smith, Andrew S. Skinner and Thomas Wilson, eds. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1975
Reid, Thomas. Essay on the Active Powers of Man (1788). In British Moralists 1650–1800, D. D. Raphael, ed. Indianapolis: Hackett, 1991
Ridley, Matt. The Origins of Virtue: Human Instincts and the Evolution of Cooperation. New York: Viking, 1996
Robbins, Lionel. The Theory of Economic Policy. London: Macmillan, 1952
Robertson, H. M., and Taylor, W. L.“Adam Smith's Approach to the Theory of Value.”Economic Journal ⅭXVII, 266 (June 1957): 182–98
Rosenberg, Nathan. “Adam Smith and the Stock of Moral Capital.”History of Political Economy 22, 1 (1990): 1–17
Rosenberg, Nathan and Birdzell, L. E., Jr. How the West Grew Rich: The Economic Transformation of the Industrial World. New York: Basic Books, 1986
Ross, I. S. The Life of Adam Smith. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995
Rothschild, Emma. “Adam Smith and the Invisible Hand.”American Economic Review 84, no 2 (May 1994): 319 –22
Rothschild, Emma Economic Sentiments: Adam Smith, Condorcet, and the Enlightenment. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2001
Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. Discourse on the Origin of Inequality (1754). In Jean-Jacques Rousseau: The Basic Political Writings, Donald A. Cress, ed. Indianapolis: Hackett, 1987
Skarzynski, Witold von. Adam Smith als Moralphilosoph und Schoepfer der Nationaloekonomie. Berlin: Theobald Grieben, 1878
Smith, Adam. Correspondence of Adam Smith. Rev. ed. E. C. Mossner and I. S. Ross, eds. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987
Smith, Adam Essays on Philosophical Subjects. W. L. D. Wightman, ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1980
Smith, Adam An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776). R. H. Campbell, A. S. Skinner, and W. B. Todd, eds. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1976
Smith, Adam Lectures on Jurisprudence (1762–63, 1766). R. L. Meek, D. D. Raphael, and P. G. Stein, eds. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1978
Smith, Adam Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres. J. C. Bryce, ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1983
Smith, Adam The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759). D. D. Raphael and A. L. Macfie, eds. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1976
Stewart, Dugald. Biographical Memoir of Adam Smith, L. L. D. (1793). New York: Augustus M. Kelley, 1966
Stigler, George J.“The Division of Labor Is Limited by the Extent of the Market.”Journal of Political Economy ⅬIX, 3 (June 1951): 185–93
Sturtevant, William C., gen. ed. Handbook of North American Indians. 12 vols. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution, 1978–98
Swabey, William C. Ethical Theory from Hobbes to Kant. New York: Philosophical Library, 1961
Teichgraeber, Richard F., III. “Free Trade” and Moral Philosophy: Rethinking the Sources of Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1986
Teichgraeber, Richard F., III “Rethinking Das Adam Smith Problem.”Journal of British Studies 20 (1981): 106–23
Terry, Richard. “Literature, Aesthetics, and Canonicity in the Eighteenth Century.”Eighteenth-Century Life 21 (1997): 80–101
Ullmann-Margalit, Edna. “Invisible-Hand Explanations.”Synthese 39 (1978): 263–91
Viner, Jacob. “Adam Smith and Laissez Faire.” In Adam Smith, 1776–1926: Lectures to Commemorate the Sesquicentennial of the Publication of “The Wealth of Nations,” John M. Clark et al., eds. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1928
Waal, Franz de. Good Natured: The Origins of Right and Wrong in Humans and Other Animals. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1996
Way, K. Brad. “Invisible Hands and the Success of Science.”Philosophy of Science 67 (March 2000): 163–75
Winch, Donald. Adam Smith's Politics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1978
Wilson, E. O. On Human Nature. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1978
Wilson, James Q. The Moral Sense. New York: The Free Press, 1993
Wright, Robert. The Moral Animal: Evolutionary Psychology and Everyday Life. New York: Pantheon Books, 1994

Metrics

Altmetric attention score

Full text views

Total number of HTML views: 0
Total number of PDF views: 0 *
Loading metrics...

Book summary page views

Total views: 0 *
Loading metrics...

* Views captured on Cambridge Core between #date#. This data will be updated every 24 hours.

Usage data cannot currently be displayed.