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Speaking of Smith Archives

Joining The Club

May 8, 2020

Fighting COVID-19 with Pretty Machines

May 4, 2020


Today’s machines are even prettier than the cleverly rigged piece of rope Smith admires. They are robots that help enable the prosperity of modern society. And during this time of global epidemic, their result is more than mere diversion.

Cromwell and the Chiseling of the Court

May 1, 2020


“It is hard to determine what a monarch may or may not do.”

The 18th Century and Social Networking

April 26, 2020


“...The mirth of … company is highly agreeable to him, and he regards this correspondence of their sentiments with his own as the greatest applause.”

A Sense of How to Respond

April 23, 2020


Part of what makes a crisis like the COVID-19 pandemic so unsettling is that the established rules have to go out the window... Luckily, we have more than an inflexible list of rules. We have our moral sentiments. 

Institutional Competition and the Scottish Enlightenment

April 19, 2020


David Hume thought that the central advantage of this diversity of governments was related to the rise and progress of the arts and sciences. 

Diderot and the Art of Thinking Freely

Amy Willis for AdamSmithWorks


Part 4 of 4 of Amy Willis' #ReadWithMe on Andrew Curran's Diderot and the Art of Thinking Freely: Politics, Education, and Ideology

Adam Smith: Myths and Realities

Richard McKenzie for AdamSmithWorks


Myth 2: Adam Smith argued that the welfare gains from free trade among nations were limited to countries’ exploitation of their production cost advantages.

Bourgeois Drama and the Democratization of Art

April 9, 2020


Part 3 of 4 of Amy Willis' #ReadWithMe on Andrew Curran's Diderot and the Art of Thinking Freely. 

Adam Smith: Myths and Realities

April 2, 2020


Myth 1: Adam Smith argued that markets are activated exclusively by people’s self-interest.

Knowledge Must be Free

Amy Willis for AdamSmithWorks

Part 2 of 4 of Amy Willis' #ReadWithMe on Andrew Curran's Diderot and the Art of Thinking Freely.  Chapters 4 and 5- the Encyclopedie

Educating for Character at Home: Adam Smith and John and Abigail Adams

G. Patrick Lynch for AdamSmithWorks

March 30, 2020


As difficult as our current circumstances are, we can teach our children the importance of being good citizens attuned to the needs of others during these troubled times.