Life And Works Of Adam Smith

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activities under a beneficent Providence. In the latter, he relies on the general theme of "the invisible hand" promoting the harmony of interests in society. So persuasive were Smith's arguments in The Wealth of Nations, that they not only provided the world with a new understanding of the wealth-creating process; they laid the intellectual foundation for the great era of free trade and economic expansion that dominated the Nineteenth Century.

2.0 Adam Smith's Early Life

There's not a lot of information on Adam Smith's life other than his famous works on moral and economic philosophy. Adam Smith was born in 1723 in Kirkaldy, Fife, Scotland. His father, who had held the post of "comptroller of customs" at Kirkaldy, died some six months before his birth. His mother, Margaret Douglas, came from a family of substantial landowners. At the age of four Adam was kidnapped by a band of Gypsies, though prompt action by his uncle soon led to his rescue. Smith was said to be ...

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In his lecturing he followed Francis Hutcheson's example of lecturing in English rather than the traditional Latin language. Glasgow, in those years was a center of the "Scottish Enlightenment", and in his spare time Smith was known to socialize with James Watt and David Hume and also with the merchant class of a rapidly economically expanding city.[2]

3.0 The Theory of Moral Sentiments

In 1759, Smith published his Theory of Moral Sentiments a work in which he principally sought to reflect about the source of man's ability to make moral judgements given that men are inclined to look to their material self-interest and self preservation. This work was one of the most popular ...

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