ADAM SMITH’S ENLIGHTENED WORLD

Commerce, morality, equality, the rule of law, and the role of government… Welcome to the world of Adam Smith.

What can we learn about our own world from Smith? Join the workers in an 18th century pin factory to find out more…

Interactive Pin Factory

Listen to the latest podcast episodes with full show notes and transcripts.

The Great Antidote

Speaking of Smith is a blog that explores the ideas, legacy, and relevance of Adam Smith.

Speaking of Smith

Latest

Smith’s Dreams: Economic and Political Liberties in a Good Polity

October 15, 2024 Silvestri & Walraevens offer commentary on Adam Smith's "Great Dream of Good Government" using both Lectures on Jurisprudence, The Theory of Moral Sentiments, and The Wealth of Nations.

Adam Smith on Money and the Pursuit of Happiness

"Happiness requires not that we obtain ever more but that we recognize when we have enough, so that we can turn our attention from mere idols to the things that really matter."

Hostile factions and political instability

"The problem of faction seems to be when they undermine the systems of which they are a part, and this relates to the concern which Ryan has rightly identified that Smith has with the stability of institutions over time and of public life more generally."

Bruce Caldwell on Hayek: A Life

It’s often said that if you want to get to know someone, you should look through their garbage. Now, I don’t recommend this method of getting to know someone (it’s kind of gross). But biographers often have the luck of getting to know the people they study by looking through their stuff- that stuff not being actual garbage.

Jacob Levy on Smith, Hayek, and Social Justice

The title of this episode might confuse you: what on earth do Adam Smith and F. A. Hayek have to say about social justice? A surprising amount, given how much we talk about it!

Explore.

An Animal That Trades

A five-part short video series on the life and contemporary relevance of Adam Smith.

Learn.

Mary Wollstonecraft, from Paris to Scandinavia

September 25, 2024 Mary Wollstonecraft, author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), had by 1796 come to different sentiments. Roos Slegers describes how Wollstonecraft's travels around Europe during and after the French Revolution changed her beliefs about rebellion, education, morals, and manners. "Wollstonecraft shares Rousseau’s desire to escape from oppressive society, but rambling through the remote parts of Sweden and Norway she comes to the conclusion that a middle ground is necessary to develop one’s intellect, one’s morals, and one’s taste."

Lucian after Hume: Love, war, and a dialogue of the dead

October 9, 2024 As death drew near, David Hume read Lucian’s Dialogues of the Dead, a strange text, full of pithy gems. Alcorn discusses one of the "finger pointer" dialogues and presents a fresh interpretation of Hume’s theories of necessity and morality.

Smith’s Dreams: Economic and Political Liberties in a Good Polity

October 15, 2024 Silvestri & Walraevens offer commentary on Adam Smith's "Great Dream of Good Government" using both Lectures on Jurisprudence, The Theory of Moral Sentiments, and The Wealth of Nations.

Why Read Adam Smith Today? Enduring Insight

After a year-long celebration of Adam Smith's birth in 2023, Peter Boettke addresses those still not well-versed with Smith's magisterial work of political economy.

Teach.

Activity: Can we expect free trade?

Use this quotation from Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations to prompt a discussion of how likely it is that any country will ever have completely free trade.

Pins, Pencils, and the Invisible Hand

Explore a pin factory with Adam Smith and contemplate the creation of the humble pencil to understand better how markets and prices help people coordinate their economic activity.

AdamSmithWorks Lesson Plans

Original, classroom-ready activities to use with your students TODAY.

Read.

Essays on Philosophical Subjects

Reflecting Adam Smith’s wide learning and varied interests, these essays shed considerable light on his place in the Scottish Enlightenment. Included are histories of astronomy, ancient logic, and ancient physics; essays on the “imitative” arts and the affinity between music, dancing, and poetry; and a critical review of Samuel Johnson’s famous Dictionary, which Smith originally published in the Edinburgh Review (1755–1756).