The Infidel and the Professor: David Hume, Adam Smith, and the Friendship That Shaped Modern Thought

333 Pages·2017·73.94 MB·English

by  Dennis C. Rasmussen

the infidel and the professor

t h e

I n f I d e l
a n d t h e
P r o f e s s o r
d a v i d h u m e,
a d a m s m i t h,
a n d t h e
f r i e n d s h i p
t h at
s h a p e d
m o d e r n
t h o u g h t
d e n n i s c.
r a s m u s s e n
princeton university press
princeton oxford
&
Copyright © 2017 by Princeton University Press
Published by Princeton University Press
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Jacket art: (Left) David Hume, Scottish National Portrait Gallery,
(right) Adam Smith, The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of
Art, Prints and Photographs: Print Collection; The New York
Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations
Frontispiece: statues of Hume and Smith. Original photo
taken by staff. Scottish National Portrait Gallery
All Rights Reserved
ISBN 978- 0- 691- 17701- 4
Library of Congress Control Number: 2017936619
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Upon the whole, I have always considered him, both in his
lifetime and since his death, as approaching as nearly to
the idea of a perfectly wise and virtuous man, as perhaps the
nature of human frailty will permit.
— Adam Smith on David Hume*
Without doubt you have read what is called the Life of David
Hume, written by himself, with the letter from Dr. Adam
Smith subjoined to it. Is not this an age of daring effrontery?
My friend Mr. [John] Anderson . . . paid me a visit lately;
and after we had talked with indignation and contempt of
the poisonous productions with which this age is infested, he
said there was now an excellent opportunity for Dr. Johnson
to step forth. I agreed with him that you might knock
Hume’s and Smith’s heads together, and make vain and
ostentatious infidelity exceedingly ridiculous. Would it not
be worth your while to crush such noxious weeds in the
moral garden?
— James Boswell to Samuel Johnson**
* Adam Smith, Letter from Adam Smith, LL.D. to William Strahan, Esq., in David
Hume, Essays, Moral, Political, and Literary, ed. Eugene F. Miller (Indianapolis: Lib-
erty Fund, [1777] 1987), xlix.
** James Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. (London: William Pickering,
[1791] 1826), 104–5.

contents
Illustrations ix
Preface xi
Acknowledgments xiii
Introduction
Dearest Friends 1
Chapter 1
The Cheerful Skeptic (1711– 1749) 18
Chapter 2
Encountering Hume (1723– 1749) 36
Chapter 3
A Budding Friendship (1750– 1754) 50
Chapter 4
The Historian and the Kirk (1754– 1759) 71
Chapter 5
Theorizing the Moral Sentiments (1759) 86
Chapter 6
Fêted in France (1759– 1766) 113
Chapter 7
Quarrel with a Wild Philosopher (1766– 1767) 133
Chapter 8
Mortally Sick at Sea (1767– 1775) 146
Chapter 9
Inquiring into the Wealth of Nations (1776) 160
Chapter 10
Dialoguing about Natural Religion (1776) 186
vii
contents
Chapter 11
A Philosopher’s Death (1776) 199
Chapter 12
Ten Times More Abuse (1776– 1777) 215
Epilogue
Smith’s Final Years in Edinburgh (1777– 1790) 229
Appendix
Hume’s My Own Life and Smith’s Letter from Adam Smith,
LL.D. to William Strahan, Esq. 239
Notes on Works Cited 253
Notes 257
Index 309
viii
illustrations
2.1 Portrait of Hume by Allan Ramsay (1754) 47
2.2 Portrait medallion of Smith by James Tassie 48
3.1 Painting of Libberton’s Wynd, Edinburgh,
by George Cattermole 56
3.2 Painting of the College Garden, Glasgow, by Robert Paul 57
5.1 Hume’s congratulatory letter to Smith on
�e �eory of Moral Sentiments 105
6.1 Painting of Hume by Louis Carrogis Carmontelle 122
7.1 Portrait of Hume by Allan Ramsay (1766) 135
7.2 Portrait of Jean- Jacques Rousseau by Allan Ramsay 136
9.1 Etching of Smith by John Kay 184
11.1 Smith’s letter to Alexander Wedderburn on
Hume’s failing health and good spirits 211
12.1 Hume’s tomb, designed by Robert Adam 216
13.1 Smith’s grave, designed by Robert Adam 237
ix