Adam Smith and Modernity

383 Pages·2023·4.281 MB·English

by  Alberto Burgio (editor)

Adam Smith and Modernity
This volume features 19 original chapters on Adam Smith’s conception
of modernity. The contributions demonstrate the relevance of Smith as
the great interpreter of modernity 250 years after the publication of The
Wealth of Nations.
The chapters in Part 1 focus on structural aspects of Smith’s work.
They cover topics such as Smith as the theorist of a spontaneous order,
the systematic dimension of Smith’s theoretical construction, and Smith’s
role as a historian of economic thought. Part 2 addresses Smith’s concep-
tion of modern subjectivity between Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles-
Lettres, Theory of Moral Sentiments, and Wealth of Nations. Here the
contributors consider the figure of the Smithian “merchant” and the
importance of ridicule and satire for understanding modern civility, and
comment on the role of sympathy, imagination, and moral judgement in
developing a sense of self, the condition of the modern man in society,
and the virtue of self-command. Part 3 focuses on the crucial question
of the relationship between ethics and economics discussing the link
between efficiency, equity and justice, the nature of Smith’s theory of
value, and the ethical connotation of Smith’s critique. Part 4 deals with
topics inherent to the functional dynamics and development process of
the Smithian “commercial society.” These topics include law and author-
ity, the relationship between work and freedom, the parable of the “poor
man’s son,” and the economic and political consequences of the new
secular orthodoxy. Finally, the chapters in Part 5 explore themes related
to history and the Smithian idea of progress. They focus on the link
between trade and progress of civilization, Smith’s modern sociological
vision of mass commercial societies, Smith’s judgement on “savage” and
premodern societies, and the controversial question of the immanentis-
tic or providentialist perspective from which Smith considers both the
social dynamics and the historical process.
Adam Smith and Modernity will appeal to scholars and advanced
students on 18th-century philosophy, the history of economic thought,
and the history of social and political philosophy.
Alberto Burgio is professor of the history of philosophy at the University
of Bologna. He has written extensively on philosophical and political
thinking from the 18th to the 20th centuries (Rousseau, Hegel, Marx,
and Gramsci). He has published numerous papers in international jour-
nals and edited collections. Recent books include Gramsci. Il sistema in
movimento (2014), Per Marx. Il sogno di una cosa (2018) and Crítica
de la razón racista (2022).

Routledge Studies in Eighteenth-Century Philosophy
Kant and the Continental Tradition
Sensibility, Nature, and Religion
Edited by Sorin Baiasu and Alberto Vanzo
Beyond Autonomy in Eighteenth-Century British and German
Aesthetics
Edited by Karl Axelsson, Camilla Flodin, and Mattias Pirholt
Kant’s Critical Epistemology
Why Epistemology Must Consider Judgment First
Kenneth R. Westphal
The Experiential Turn in Eighteenth-Century German Philosophy
Edited by Karin de Boer and Tinca Prunea-Brettonet
Human Dignity and the Kingdom of Ends
Kantian Perspectives and Practical Applications
Edited by Jan-Willem van der Rijt and Adam Cureton
System and Freedom in Kant and Fichte
Edited by Giovanni Pietro Basile and Ansgar Lyssy
Perspectives on Kant’s Opus postumum
Edited by Giovanni Pietro Basile and Ansgar Lyssy
Adam Smith and Modernity
1723–2023
Edited by Alberto Burgio
For more information about this series, please visit: https://www.
routledge.com/Routledge-Studies-in-Eighteenth-Century-Philosophy/
book-series/SE0391
Adam Smith and Modernity
1723–2023
Edited by
Alberto Burgio
First published 2023
by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
and by Routledge
4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an
informa business
© 2023 selection and editorial matter, Alberto Burgio;
individual chapters, the contributors
The right of Alberto Burgio to be identified as the author of
the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual
chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and
78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted
or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented,
including photocopying and recording, or in any information
storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from
the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be
trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for
identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
ISBN: 978-1-032-29394-3 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-032-29395-0 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-30144-8 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003301448
Typeset in Sabon
by codeMantra
Contents
Preface xi
List of abbreviations xiii
Notes on contributors xv
The order of discourse 1
1 Adam Smith and spontaneous order 3
CRAIG SMITH
2 Systems, love of system and modernity 18
JEAN-DANIEL BOYER
3 Adam Smith as a historian of economic thought 35
FRITZ SÖLLNER
The virtues of modern man 49
4 Adam Smith on self-command: utility, dignity, and sympathy 51
RYAN PATRICK HANLEY
5 The joke is not funny anymore: irony, laughter and
ridicule in Adam Smith 68
SPYRIDON TEGOS
6 Smith and Hume on imagination and sympathy 89
STEFANO FIORI
7 Adam Smith and the creative role of imagination 109
KEITH HANKINS AND BRENNAN McDAVID
viii Contents
8 Adam Smith on natural education and moral conscience 128
RICCARDO BONFIGLIOLI
Ethics and economics 145
9 Adam Smith and a theory of just efficiency 147
MARÍA ALEJANDRA CARRASCO AND MARIA PIA PAGANELLI
10 The ego-alter-tertius paradigm: Adam Smith’s interaction
model 161
ELEONORE KALISCH
11 Did Adam Smith hold a labour theory of value? Beaver
and deer hunters in the early state 175
JEFFREY T. YOUNG
12 Endogenous ethics: Smith’s real contribution to the
Enlightenment 193
AMOS WITZTUM
Theory and critique of commercial society 211
13 The poor man’s son: deception in Adam Smith’s case for
free enterprise 213
JAMES R. OTTESON
14 Whose Adam Smith? The limits of law’s action 231
AGUSTÍN JOSÉ MENÉNDEZ
15 Work and freedom in Adam Smith: limits of historical
experience 249
MARIA LUISA PESANTE
The problem of history 267
16 History without providence? Adam Smith — historian
and critic of modernity 269
ALBERTO BURGIO
Contents ix
17 Specialization and commercial modernity: Adam Smith
as sociologist 289
LISA HILL
18 Smith and the savages in the Wealth of Nations, or the
anthropology of political economy 306
ROBERTO MARCHIONATTI
19 On the nature and causes of trade and the progress of
civilization 325
LEONIDAS MONTES
Index of passages quoted 343
Index 349