Synopses & Reviews
In this accessible book, Gavin Kennedy takes a fresh look at Adam Smith's moral philosophy and its links to his political economy and his lectures on jurisprudence. The book provides a new analysis of Wealth of Nations, and argues that Adam Smith's intellectual legacy was coopted in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries by economists pursuing agendas that Smith did not advocate. It also provides a new explanation for the main mysteries about Smith's later life.
About the Author
Gavin Kennedy is Professor and Director of Contracts at Edinburgh Business School, Herio-Watt University.
Table of Contents
Preface and Acknowledgements * Bibliographical Note * General Introduction * PART I: THE MAN * Introduction * Smith's Family Background * Disease of the Learned * A 'Juvenile' Work * Bad Days at Balliol * A Game of Great Skill * His Strategic Allegiance * Professor Smith! * PART II: IMPARTIAL SPECTATORS * Introduction * The Religious Climate * On Benevolence * A Poem about a Louse * The Impartial Spectator * The Looking Glass * Social Cohesion * The Ends of Nature * PART III: IMPARTIAL JURISTS * Justice as a Negative Virtue * Constitutional Monarchy * Foundations of Liberty * History as Imagination * The Four Stages * Was He Aware of a Fifth Stage? * PART IV: IMPARTIAL COMPETITION * Introduction * A Linguistic Osmosis * Insufficiency of Self-love * Self-love and Conditionality of the Process of Negotiation * Of Distracting and Dismal Confusions * Of Pins and Things * Of Common Coats and Opulence * Alienation: Rhetoric or Substance * What Industrial Revolution? * Significance of Smith's 'Unawareness' * Why Smith 'Retired' * On Laissez Faire * The Wonderful World of Adam Smith? * In the Absence of Perfect Liberty * Monopolists in Product Markets * Against the Public Interest * The Impartial Competitor * The Mercantile System * The 'Invisible' Hand * The Ends of Monopoly? * Smithian Markets * Commercial Revival * On the Virtues of Frugality * On Market Interference * Famous Exceptions to Free Trade * Of Strawberries and Buttons * Cheerful and Hearty Economics * Accumulation and Employment of Stock * On Doing More Harm than Good * Doom and Gloom? * Of Grandchildren and Grandparents * A 'Night Watchman' State? * Smith's Immodest Proposals for Public Expenditures * Education and Health Expenditures * Public Revenues * Government Failure * Reclaiming Smith's Legacy * Appendix: Smith's '1755 Paper' * Select Bibliography * Index