Navigation – Plan du site

AccueilNuméros9-3Revue des livresComptes rendusRyan P. Hanley (ed.), Adam Smith:...

Revue des livres
Comptes rendus

Ryan P. Hanley (ed.), Adam Smith: His Life, Thought and Legacy

Ecem Okan
p. 607-612
Référence(s) :

Ryan P. Hanley (ed.), Adam Smith: His Life, Thought, and Legacy, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2016, xxiv + 571 pages, ISBN 978-069115405-3

Texte intégral

Afficher l’image
Crédits : Princeton University Press

1With an astute analogy Hanley compares this collection of essays with a travel guide: travellers are offered invaluable guidance throughout the universe of Adam Smith which, as Buchan notes in taking up the analogy, “is one of the sights of philosophy and, as the old Michelin tourist guides used to say, merits the detour” (15). Smith’s universe is indeed that of a philosopher and in presenting him overall as a moral philosopher the book gives Smith his due. Yet the proclaimed purpose of the book is not only to further the appreciation of the richness and breadth of Smith’s thought beyond economics, but also to “rediscover his relevance for our time” (ix) by proposing intellectual voyages through which Smith can be shown to “inform and contribute to current live debates in the contemporary academy as well as the contemporary public sphere” (x). In this regard too, the volume is to a great extent successful and the editor should be credited for having brought together outstanding scholars from a wide range of disciplines, many of whom have written illuminating books on Smith’s life, thought and legacy or have engaged with Smith in their works as important contemporary philosophers or as a businessman (i.e. John C. Bogle who passed away earlier this year).

2The book is comprised of thirty-two chapters, divided into five sections. After an introductory section presenting Smith’s published and unpublished works along with his life and the Scottish context, the remainder of the chapters seems to be somewhat arbitrarily organized into four sections treating “Smith’s social vision”, his economics, “Smith beyond economics” and “Smith beyond the academy”.

3Part 1 begins with “The Biography of Adam Smith” by James Buchan who thoroughly covers the subject in approaching it from a historiographical perspective: besides providing a succinct biography, Buchan summarizes the history of Smith’s biographies (including his own) while at the same time assessing the different Smiths presented by his various biographers. Thereafter, a series of chapters on Smith’s works alternates chronologically starting with Vivienne Brown’s piece on his very first lectures on rhetoric and belles lettres. After noting that “Smith would be horrified to think that scholars would read the student notes of his lectures as if they were a finished statement of his mature views” (18), she gives a critical examination of his rhetorical theory. Eric Schliesser presents the key concepts of The Theory of Moral Sentiments, highlighting that the latter should be read in relation to Smith’s “more theoretical science of man” (34). Knud Haakonssen explores the intertwining of Smith’s theory of justice, law and government in his lectures on jurisprudence with a careful attention to the evolution of his teaching. In this regard, Haakonssen restates his previous concern for the change Smith effectuated in the order of presentation of his lectures (treating government first rather than property) at his final year at the University of Glasgow. Whereas the possible reasons for this change had previously been studied (Haakonssen, 1996; Metzger, 2010), neither of these studies nor the present piece discuss the change Smith made in relation to the obviously less fundamental but interesting fact (though mentioned by Haakonssen himself (49)) that Smith knew beforehand that he was to leave Glasgow and arranged the remainder of his course to be taught by his former student Thomas Young. In the following chapter, Jerry Evensky turns to the Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations and provides a proper guide to the economic dimension of Smith’s system. Reminiscent of his most recent book Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations: A Reader’s Guide (2015), the emphasis is laid upon the Smithian take-off theory of growth and the dynamic of the circuits of capital flow. There follows Craig Smith’s chapter on the Essays on Philosophical Subjects published posthumously according to Smith’s will. Alongside a plea for their wider consideration by scholars, the chapter mostly focuses on the Scot’s historical essays on astronomy, ancient physics, ancient logics and metaphysics which combined together outline “a theory of growth of human knowledge” (92). In the closing chapter to this introductory section, Nicholas Phillipson, Smith’s most recent biographer, recapitulates the Scottish intellectual and historical context in which Smith’s science of man is embedded and upon which he had powerful influence (remarkably chiefly by his theory of rhetoric). According to Phillipson, a sophisticated theory of needs forms the basis of Smith’s attempt to propound a secular science of man, “a project of Aristotelian proportions”. (105)

4In the second part, Ryan Patrick Hanley, the editor of the present volume, reminds us that an often neglected yet significant purpose of Smith’s project was that of offering a guide to a good way of life. Hanley shows that the Smithian way of becoming virtuous requires transcending our self-concern. Leonidas Montes’ contribution constitutes an appropriate follow-up to this issue. Analysing the interplay between sympathy, self-interest and the four main Smithian virtues (prudence, justice, beneficence and self-command), Montes argues that Smith is more than a mere virtue ethicist. Elizabeth Anderson then reflects on Smith’s stance on moral, social and political equality (in comparison with Rousseau’s) and deduces that “Smith’s work is a milestone in the history of egalitarianism” (169). In the following chapter, Nicholas Wolterstorff provides an illuminating analysis of Smith’s theory of justice while underlining its originality on the one hand and its failure to integrate “the idea of the worth and dignity of a person” (188) on the other. According to Wolterstorff, an account of justice that lacks such an idea fails. Remy Debes revisits in chapter 12 Smith’s theory of sympathy as the groundwork for his account of human sociability. He also contrasts Hume’s “contagion” theory with Smith’s “simulation” theory of sympathy by stressing the role imagination plays in the latter (193). Next, David Schmidtz, in a somewhat discursive final chapter, undertakes the reconstruction of a Smithian theory of freedom. Drawing much on Hanley’s previous work, Schmidtz first considers the liberating effects of markets in Smith’s thought and then explores the reasons why for Smith the realization of these effects might be hindered.

5Agnar Sandmo’s appraisal of the Wealth of Nations from the perspective of modern economic theory makes up the first contribution of the third part devoted to Smith’s economics. Sandmo takes heed not to succumb to anachronism by distinguishing the Smithian economic concepts from the contemporary ones. Still, he conflates Smith’s price theory with the neoclassical one by identifying the Smithian distinction between the natural and market price with “the modern distinction between the long-run and short-run equilibrium price under perfect competition” (233). In the next chapter which aims at revising the literature by vindicating the consistency of Smith’s considerations on banking, Maria Pia Paganelli shows how Smith’s particular treatment of the Scottish banking system reflects his general view of society as “a complex web of entangled relationships among the economy, the polity, laws, and morals” (248). Vernon L. Smith’s piece “Adam Smith and Experimental Economics: Sentiments to Wealth” stands out among the other contributions by its difference in approaching the subject matter: rather conversational in style, Vernon Smith traces the evolution of his own thinking about experimental economics through his further engagement with the Scot’s works. Notwithstanding his idiosyncratic approach, he manages not to leave the main character in the background. The shortest part of the volume concludes with Amartya Sen’s chapter where a case is made for the relevance of appreciating Smith as a development economist. It appears odd that Sen presents such an approach as new insofar as there is a vast literature associated with Smith’s awareness about the developmental issues of his day (e.g. “the rich-poor country debate” or the developmental gap between the Scottish Lowlands and Highlands; Hont, 1983; Robertson, 2005). Still, it is evident that Sen’s interest lies in new perspectives Smith can offer to the contemporary development economics illustrated by his call for a broader scope for the field.

6In Part 4, Gordon Graham dissects all the possible aspects pertaining to the topic of “Adam Smith and Religion”: his personal faith, the theological dimension of his thought, and his philosophy of religion, namely his inquiry into “the source of religion in human nature” (312) (which has great affinity with what Hume does in the Natural History of Religion (1757)—surprisingly unmentioned by the author despite many references to Hume and his Dialogues). Through a critique of Lisa Hill’s much-debated article on “The Hidden Theology of Adam Smith” (2001), Graham cogently argues that the extent of Smith’s natural theology should not be overvalued, all the more so that there is no evident logical connection between the theological components and the moral and economic dimension of his thought. Lisa Hill, in the next chapter, reiterates the central role Smith’s providentialism plays in his spontaneous order theory, which, as she suggests, is the cornerstone of his political theory. Understanding the balance between liberty and gradualism, i.e. the “two key tenets of the spontaneous order theory” (332) is, according to Hill, a requisite for acknowledging the coherence of Smith’s political project. Lisa Herzog then sorts out how Smith’s moral theory can contribute to an ongoing debate of modern ethics about the stability of identity by providing an account of moral self, which is more or less malleable by the social context. In a similar vein, Jacqueline Taylor uses Sandra Lee Bartky’s work on sympathy and solidarity to illustrate what feminist ethics can gain from Smith’s moral theorizing. Chad Flanders, in turn, exploits the Theory of Moral Sentiments in an engaging analysis of resentment, punishment and justice in Smith’s thought. Lurking in the background is his critique of modern analytical jurisprudence which goes hand in hand with his endorsement of the rationale of Smith’s unfinished project of natural jurisprudence. In the following chapter, Stephen McKenna forges a link between Smith’s rhetorical theory and rhetoric as an academic discipline, thereby underscoring the modern twist Smith gave to the classical question of the role of the study and practice of rhetoric in the formation of moral character. He also urges for further studies in rhetoric “most particularly at a moment when the humanities are thought to be in crisis, due at least in part, it is often said, to utilitarian pressures of capitalism driven by neoliberalist politics” (400). Right afterwards, Karen Valihora aptly discusses the narrative structure of the Theory of Moral Sentiments and how it prompts the reader to adopt different point of views which in turn enables the formation and the maintenance of social standards. Michaël Biziou in “Adam Smith and the History of Philosophy” takes quite a different track from the previous contributions, by providing a guide to historians of philosophy who want to do research on Smith. He considers the methodological issues to be encountered and traces out some research plans regarding the philosophical context of Smith’s thought. The section ends with Fredrik Albritton Jonsson’s interesting contribution on Enlightenment studies, which is quite extensive in scope. Jonnson starts off with a survey of some different interpretations attempting to make sense of the Enlightenment and to gauge the extent of Smith’s understanding of the newly emerging industrial society. He then passes, through a discussion of Smith’s view on empire, to a rather neglected yet relevant topic, namely the impact of ecology, environment and natural history on Smith’s political economy.

7The final part of the book starts off with Gavin Kennedy’s refutation of common misreadings of Smith’s ideas by generations of academics and politicians. The bulk of the chapter tackles the use and abuse of Smith’s metaphor of the invisible hand in relation to the regulation of markets and thus sets the scene for the two following chapters on whether Smith’s politics should be considered left- or right-wing. This never-to-be-resolved debate is epitomized by Samuel Fleischacker’s and James R. Otteson’s contributions (respectively, on the left and right) in which they seem, with hindsight, to be talking past each other because, as both of them are cautiously aware, all depends on how one construes the term “left” and “right”. Whereas Fleischacker deems them cluster terms, “defined by general aims and orientation rather than specific policies and strategies” (489), Otteson concentrates on the specific strategies as their defining feature: (de)centralization of political-economic decision making. Meanwhile, Luo Wei-Dong provides a survey of Smith scholarship in China throughout the twentieth century by pointing out the role of ideology (first Marxist, then neoliberal) in academia. Note that he presents the sea change towards Smith as a result of the search for new theoretical support required by the economic, political and social transformations of the Chinese society. John C. Bogle then draws a compelling parallel between the nascent capitalism of Smith’s day and today’s shareholder capitalism in the USA. He detects in the latter a kind of pervasive agency problem which is similar to what Smith was apprehensive regarding the joint stock companies of his day: the conflict of interest arising between capital owners and managers stemming from the fact that investors do not manage their own capital. Deploring this “malfeasance in our system of modern capitalism” (532), Bogle proposes concrete solutions in order to prevent further financial market failures. Finally, Douglas A. Irwin gives a lucid exposition of Smith’s arguments for free trade (carefully demarcated from laissez faire) and against protectionism. He also reminds us of the novelty of Smith’s idea according to which economic policies should be evaluated by their overall impact “on the real value of a country’s national income, or what he called the real annual revenue (or produce) of society” (548)—which sounds trite to our contemporary ears.

8Just as Hanley thinks good traveller guides should do (xi), the collection offers something more than a survey of Smith’s universe. This bonus partly comes from what may be considered to be the very weakness of the guide: the considerable overlaps and repetitions constitute the basis for many different and sometimes controversial interpretations which cause the readers to ponder over the subject, thereby pushing them toward an independent point of view. The book as a whole is imbued with the same thought-provoking tendency, especially when promoting multidisciplinary research. The one qualification to note is the lesser attention paid to the Essays on Philosophical Subjects—thus comforting Craig Smith’s observation (91, 102)—which is exemplified by the manner in which Smith’s treatment of religion, one of the recurring themes of the book, is handled without any discussion of arguably Smith’s most irreligious views in the History of Astronomy (Section III). This is not to say that the guide attracts the readers only to the more touristic or popular sights. Indeed many pristine locations are hinted to as well, and at any rate, as any good guide, it appeals both to first-time and frequent visitors of Smith’s universe.

Haut de page

Bibliographie

Evensky, Jerry. 2015. Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations: A Reader’s Guide. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Haakonssen, Knud. 1996. Natural Law and Moral Philosophy from Grotius to the Scottish Enlightenment. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Hill, Lisa. 2001. The Hidden Theology of Adam Smith. European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, 8(1): 1-29.

Hont, Istvan. 1983. The ‘Rich Country-Poor Country’ Debate in Scottish Classical Political Economy. In Istvan Hont and Michael Ignatieff (eds), Wealth and Virtue: The Shaping of Political Economy in the Scottish Enlightenment. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 271-315.

Metzger, Ernest. 2010. Adam Smith’s Historical Jurisprudence and the ‘Method of the Civilians’. Loyola Law Review, 56(1): 1-31.

Robertson, John. 2005. The Case for The Enlightenment: Scotland and Naples 1680–1760. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Haut de page

Pour citer cet article

Référence papier

Ecem Okan, « Ryan P. Hanley (ed.), Adam Smith: His Life, Thought and Legacy »Œconomia, 9-3 | 2019, 607-612.

Référence électronique

Ecem Okan, « Ryan P. Hanley (ed.), Adam Smith: His Life, Thought and Legacy »Œconomia [En ligne], 9-3 | 2019, mis en ligne le 01 septembre 2019, consulté le 06 janvier 2021. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/oeconomia/6559 ; DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/oeconomia.6559

Haut de page

Auteur

Ecem Okan

Arizona State University. eokan@asu.edu

Haut de page

Droits d’auteur

Licence Creative Commons
Les contenus d’Œconomia sont mis à disposition selon les termes de la Licence Creative Commons Attribution - Pas d'Utilisation Commerciale - Pas de Modification 4.0 International.

Haut de page
  • Logo Association Œconomia
  • Logo CNRS
  • Logo DOAJ - Directory of Open Access Journals
  • OpenEdition Journals
Rechercher dans OpenEdition Search

Vous allez être redirigé vers OpenEdition Search