This Companion of nineteen essays, accompanied by the editor’s
introduction, investigates aspects of the philosophical foundations of Adam Smith’s
thought as well as his economic analysis and approach to policy.
The authors view Adam Smith’s work as an interconnected system of thought, which
incorporates both moral philosophy and economics. His earlier work in moral philosophy,
The Theory of Moral Sentiments receives significant consideration and the contributors
also discuss important connections and insights into the sort of economics that Adam Smith
is more widely known for in his Wealth of Nations. This book is distinguished from other
collections of essays on Adam Smith in that all of the contributors are economists, and
the coverage is determined by the interests of contemporary economists and scholars in the
history of economic thought.
A wide audience will find this Companion of great value and interest, including
economists, the general economics profession, political scientists and political
theorists, and philosophers with an interest in Adam Smith’s work as well as historians
of economics. Advanced undergraduate and post-graduate students in these fields will also
warmly welcome the book.
Edited by Jeffrey T. Young, A. Barton Hepburn Professor of Economics,
St Lawrence University, Canton, New York, US
Contents:
Introduction
Jeffrey T. Young
Table of Smith’s Primary Works
Brendan Long
Smith’s Life and Major Works
Brendan Long
PART I: ADAM SMITH’S SYSTEM AND ITS ANTECEDENTS: PHILOSOPHICAL CONCERNS
1. Adam Smith, the Last of the Former Virtue Ethicists
Deirdre McCloskey
2. Adam Smith and Aristotle
Gloria Vivenza
3. Agency and Discourse: Revisiting the Adam Smith Problem
Vivienne Brown
4. Adam Smith’s Theism
Brendan Long
5. Smith’s Philosophy and Economic Methodology
Sheila C. Dow
6. The Moral Philosophical Frame of Adam Smith’s Economic Thought
Jerry Evensky
PART II: ADAM SMITH’S SYSTEM AND ITS ANTECEDENTS: ANALYTICAL ECONOMICS
7. Adam Smith, the Physiocrats and Turgot
Peter Groenewegen
8. Wants versus Needs: A Smithian Model of General Equilibrium
Amos Witztum
9. Stochastic Demand and the Extent of the Market: Another Piece of the Smith
Puzzle
James M. Buchanan and Yong J. Yoon
10. Smithian Answers to Some Puzzling Results in the Experimental Literature
Maria Pia Paganelli
PART III: APPLICATIONS AND POLICY ANALYSIS
11. The Invisible Hand
Warren J. Samuels
12. Adam Smith and Economic Development
Salim Rashid
13. ‘In the Heat of Writing’: Polemics and the ‘Error of Adam Smith’ in
the Matter of the Corn Bounty
Glenn Hueckel
14. The Mercantile System
Andrew S. Skinner
15. Jeremy Bentham and Adam Smith on the Usury Laws: A ‘Smithian’ Reply to
Bentham and a New Problem
Samuel Hollander
16. ‘Only Three Duties’: Adam Smith on the Economic Role of Government
Steven G. Medema and Warren J. Samuels
17. Adam Smith on the Standing Army versus Militia Issue: Wealth Over Virtue?
Leonidas Montes
18. Adam Smith and the Place of Faction
David M. Levy and Sandra J. Peart
19. Adam Smith and the Chicago School
Steven G. Medema
Index
400 pages,Hardcover
