Aims of the lecture

• 1. To provide an overview of Theory of Moral Sentiments and Wealth of Nations.

• 2. To provide in the treatment of Wealth of Nations a model for the reading of complex texts.

• 3. To shift attention in this way from what Smith “really meant” to what he “actually wrote”.

Bibliography

In the publication history of Wealth of Nations there are many conspectuses, abbreviated versions and summaries, beginning with Jeremiah Joyce’s A Complete Analysis or Abridgement of Dr. Adam Smith’s Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1797), which went through three editions by 1821 and was republished in an Oxford edition in 1877 and 1880. Robert Heilbroner’s The Essential Adam Smith (1986) is a useful modern compendium. Jerry Evensky has published two overviews: Adam Smith’s Moral Philosophy (2005), summarizing Smith’s “moral philosophical vision” (and not directly Theory of Moral Sentiments) in Part I and Wealth of Nations in Part II (the summary of modern economists’ perceptions of Smith in Part III is of no interest here). Evensky has also published Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations: A Reader’s Guide (2015), but it is marred by the use of inappropriate modern economic preconceptions and terminology.

There is, however, no substitute for reading Theory of Moral Sentiments and Wealth of Nations, preferably in the Glasgow edition since you will then have access to a full editorial apparatus if you should need it. Just skimming these works will give you a clearer idea of their structure and argument than can be gleaned from most of the commentary.

For Theory of Moral Sentiments, useful orientation based on a close reading can be found in Terry Peach, “Adam Smith’s ‘Optimistic Deism,’ the Invisible Hand of Providence, and the Unhappiness of Nations”, History of Political Economy 46 (2014), 55–83.

For Wealth of Nations, Keith Tribe, “Reading ‘Trade’ in the Wealth of Nations”, Economy of the Word, chapter 4 explicitly sets out to provide a close reading of exactly where and what Smith writes about trade, rather than compare some things he wrote with some things others have since written.