Adam Smith
Scottish philosopher and economist
Adam Smith was a Scottish philosopher and economist of the Scottish Enlightenment. He wrote The Wealth of Nations, seen as the first modern work of economics.
2 summaries 17 min of listening
British Born 1723 in Kirkcaldy Died 1790
Influenced by Aristotle, Immanuel Kant, David Hume
About Adam Smith
Smith was baptised at Kirkcaldy, Fife, in June 1723 and died in July 1790. At Glasgow he studied social philosophy, before continuing his studies at Oxford. After giving public lectures in Edinburgh, he worked with David Hume, and he later became a professor teaching moral philosophy at Glasgow. He wrote The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759) during his years at Glasgow. Later he took a tutoring post that let him travel around Europe and meet leading thinkers of his day. The Wealth of Nations (1776) is regarded as his magnum opus. In it he worked out the idea of division of labor and argued that rational self-interest and competition can bring economic prosperity. A 2005 list of the 100 Best Scottish Books included it.