The Cambridge Companion to Adam Smith

407 Pages·2006·1.72 MB·English

the cambridge companion to
ADAM SMITH
AdamSmithisbestknownasthefounderofscientificeco-
nomics and as an early proponent of the modern market
economy.Politicaleconomy,however,wasonlyonepartof
Smith’s comprehensive intellectual system. Consisting of a
theory of mind and its functions in language, arts, science,
and social intercourse, Smith’s system was a towering con-
tributiontotheScottishEnlightenment.Hisideasonsocial
intercourse,infact,alsoservedasthebasisforamoraltheory
thatprovidedbothhistoricalandtheoreticalaccountsoflaw,
politics, and economics. This companion volume provides
anup-to-dateexaminationofallaspectsofSmith’sthought.
Collectively, the essays take into account Smith’s multiple
contexts – Scottish, British, European, Atlantic; biographi-
cal, institutional, political, philosophical – and they draw
on all his works, including student notes from his lectures.
Pluralisticinapproach,thevolumeprovidesacontextualist
historyofSmith,aswellasdirectphilosophicalengagement
withhisideas.
KnudHaakonssenisProfessorofIntellectualHistoryinthe
DepartmentofHistoryattheUniversityofSussex.AFellow
oftheRoyalSocietyofEdinburghandtheAcademyofSocial
Sciences in Australia, and Foreign Member of the Royal
DanishAcademyofSciencesandLetters,heistheauthorand
editorofnumerousbooksandtexts,mostrecently,Natural
Law and Moral Philosophy: From Grotius to the Scottish
Enlightenment and The Cambridge History of Eighteenth-
CenturyPhilosophy.
cambridge companions to philosophy
othervolumesintheseriesofcambridge
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The Cambridge Companion to
ADAM SMITH
Edited by
Knud Haakonssen
UniversityofSussex
cambridge university press
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isbn-13:978-0-521-77924-1(pbk.)
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1.Smith,Adam,1723–1790. I.Haakonssen,Knud,1947– II.Title.
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contents
List of Contributors page ix
Method of Citation xiii
Introduction: The Coherence of Smith’s Thought 1
knud haakonssen
1. Imagination: Morals, Science, and Arts 22
charles l. griswold, jr.
2. Adam Smith, Belletrist 57
mark salber phillips
3. Adam Smith’s Theory of Language 79
marcelo dascal
4. Smith and Science 112
christopher j. berry
5. Smith on Ingenuity, Pleasure, and the
Imitative Arts 136
neil de marchi
6. Sympathy and the Impartial Spectator 158
alexander broadie
7. Virtues, Utility, and Rules 189
robert shaver
8. Adam Smith on Justice, Rights, and Law 214
david lieberman
vii
viii Contents
9. Self-Interest and Other Interests 246
pratap bhanu mehta
10. Adam Smith and History 270
j. g. a. pocock
11. Adam Smith’s Politics 288
douglas long
12. Adam Smith’s Economics 319
emma rothschild and amartya sen
13. The Legacy of Adam Smith 366
knud haakonssen and donald winch
Bibliography 395
Index 401
list of contributors
christopher j. berry isProfessorofPoliticalTheoryattheUni-
versityofGlasgow.InextensionofhisworkontheScottishEnlight-
enment, he is concerned with the philosophical anthropology of
politics from a Humean perspective. His books include Hume,
Hegel,andHumanNature(1982),HumanNature(1986),TheIdea
of Luxury: A Conceptual and Historical Analysis (1994), and The
SocialTheoryoftheScottishEnlightenment(1997).
alexander broadie, ProfessorofLogicandRhetoricatGlasgow
University, has published a dozen books on Scottish philosophy.
They include The Scottish Enlightenment: An Anthology (1997),
TheCambridgeCompaniontotheScottishEnlightenment(2003),
The Scottish Enlightenment: The Historical Age of the Historical
Nation (2003), and Thomas Reid on Logic, Rhetoric and the Fine
Arts(2005)intheEdinburgh EditionofThomasReid.
marcelo dascal is Professor of Philosophy at Tel Aviv Univer-
sity. He works on Leibniz, the philosophy of language, cognitive
science,andpragmatics.HisbooksincludeLaSe´miologiedeLeib-
niz (1978), Leibniz: Language, Signs and Thought (1987), (coed.)
LeibnizandAdam(1991),PragmaticsandthePhilosophyofMind
(1983),NegotiationandPowerinDialogicInteraction(2001),and
InterpretationandUnderstanding(2003).
neil de marchi is Professor of Economics at Duke University.
He writes on the history of economic ideas and on the history
andfunctioningofmarkets,inparticular,marketsforart.Hispub-
lications include (coed.) Economic Engagements with Art (1999),
(coed.) Higgling: Transactors and Their Markets in the History of
ix
x ListofContributors
Economics(1994),andrecentarticlesontheearlymodernartmar-
ketandonMandevilleandSmith.
charles l. griswold, jr., is Professor of Philosophy at Boston
University. His publications include Self-Knowledge in Plato’s
Phaedrus(1986;reprintedin1996);AdamSmithandtheVirtuesof
Enlightenment (1999); and articles on a wide spectrum of ancient
philosophy and the philosophy of the Enlightenment. He edited
PlatonicWritings/PlatonicReadings(1988;reprintedin2002).He
isengagedinamajorprojecton“PhilosophyandDiscontents:On
ReconciliationwithImperfection.”
knud haakonssen, Professor of Intellectual History at the Uni-
versityofSussex,formerlyProfessorofPhilosophyatBostonUni-
versity, works on early modern natural law theory and on the
EnlightenmentinNorthernEurope.HeisgeneraleditorofNatural
LawandEnlightenmentClassicsandoftheEdinburghEditionof
ThomasReidandeditorofTheCambridgeHistoryofEighteenth-
CenturyPhilosophy(2005).HisotherbooksincludeTheScienceof
aLegislator(1981)andNaturalLawandMoralPhilosophy(1996).
david lieberman is Jefferson E. Peyser Professor of Law and
History at the University of California at Berkeley. He works on
Bentham and eighteenth-century legal thought, and he has pub-
lished extensively in this field, including The Province of Legis-
lation Determined: Legal Theory in Eighteenth-Century Britain
(1989).HeiscurrentlypreparinganeditionofJeanDeLolme’sThe
ConstitutionofEngland.
douglas long teaches political science at the University of
WesternOntario.HeworksonHume,Smith,Bentham,andmod-
ernpoliticalthought.HispublicationsincludeBenthamonLiberty
(1977).
pratap bhanu mehta is President, Center for Policy Research,
Delhi.HepreviouslytaughtatHarvardandJawaharlalNehruUni-
versity. He has published widely in areas of political philosophy,
constitutionallaw,ethics,andintellectualhistory.Hismostrecent
bookisTheBurdenofDemocracy(2003).Abookonmoderncon-
stitutionalismwillappearin2005.
ListofContributors xi
mark salber phillips is the author of Society and Sentiment:
Genres of Historical Writing in Britain, 1740–1820 (2000) and
coeditor(withGordonSchochet)ofQuestionsofTradition(2004),
as well as earlier studies of historical and political thought in
the Italian Renaissance. He is Professor of History at Carleton
UniversityinOttawa.
j. g. a. pocock is Harry C. Black Professor Emeritus of History
at the Johns Hopkins University. His works include The Ancient
Constitution and the Feudal Law (1957; 2nd ed., 1987); Politics,
Language, and Time (1971); The Machiavellian Moment (1975);
andVirtue,Commerce,andHistory(1985).Heiscurrentlyworking
onBarbarismandReligion,ofwhichthreevolumeshaveappeared
so far: The Enlightenment of Edward Gibbon, 1737–1764 (1999),
NarrativesofCivilGovernment(1999),andTheFirstDeclineand
Fall(2003).
emma rothschild, Director of the Centre for History and Eco-
nomicsatKing’sCollege,Cambridge,andVisitingProfessorofHis-
toryatHarvardUniversity,isaneconomichistorianandhistorian
of economic thought. She is the author of Economic Sentiments:
AdamSmith,CondorcetandtheEnlightenment(2001),andsheis
working on a book about the American Revolution and the East
IndiaCompany.
amartya sen, LamontUniversityProfessorandProfessorofEco-
nomics and Philosophy at Harvard University, was awarded the
Nobel Prize in Economics in 1998 for his work on welfare eco-
nomics and social choice theory. He has drawn on the writings
of Adam Smith in a number of essays, including “Adam Smith’s
Prudence” (1986), and books, including Poverty and Famines
(1981),OnEthicsandEconomics(1987),andRationalityandFree-
dom(2002).
robert shaver is Professor of Philosophy at the University of
Manitoba.Heworksonethics.RecentpublicationsincludeRatio-
nal Egoism (1999); “Welfare and Outcome,” Canadian Journal of
Philosophy 32 (2002); and “Principia Then and Now,” Utilitas 15
(2003).