ADAM SMITH’S ENLIGHTENED WORLD

Commerce, morality, equality, the rule of law, and the role of government… Welcome to the world of Adam Smith.

What can we learn about our own world from Smith? Join the workers in an 18th century pin factory to find out more…

Interactive Pin Factory

Listen to the latest podcast episodes with full show notes and transcripts.

The Great Antidote

Speaking of Smith is a blog that explores the ideas, legacy, and relevance of Adam Smith.

Speaking of Smith

Latest

Adam Smith Goes to the Dentist

Thoughts from the dentist's chair about pain prevention and cooperation.

Sympathy and Antipathy in the 21st Century

To increase sympathy in our daily lives in the Smithian way we can cultivate the ‘man within the breast’ through education, contemplation and socialization.

Extra: Giandomenica Becchio on Feminist Economics

Feminist economics helps us understand gender inequality. Understanding can help us fight for a better world, but we still have to fight.

David Beito on Rose Lane Says

Not often do we find people who make the case for how race, liberty, and equality belong together. Even less often do we find them making arguments in the height of racially and economically troubled times. And EVEN LESS do we find audio clips of them doing so.

Sarah Skwire on Adam Smith and Grief

Adam Smith was a man who read the Stoics. He liked them, too, talking them up in The Theory of Moral Sentiments , particularly in the section on grief. Then he lost two of his closest relations (old timey, right?), David Hume and his mother. These world-shaking events caused him to reevaluate what he said about grief in TMS and change our interpretation of his commentary on grief.

Explore.

An Animal That Trades

A five-part short video series on the life and contemporary relevance of Adam Smith.

Learn.

Smith’s Dreams: Economic and Political Liberties in a Good Polity

October 15, 2024 Silvestri & Walraevens offer commentary on Adam Smith's "Great Dream of Good Government" using both Lectures on Jurisprudence, The Theory of Moral Sentiments, and The Wealth of Nations.

The British East India Company: Hero of Free Trade?

December 7, 2022 Over two centuries, the arguments of corporations for monopoly “remained remarkably static,” but the experience of the corporations brought to bear in the debate “certain moments of conceptual innovation that trading corporations spurred and shaped.”

Teach.

Activity: Can we expect free trade?

Use this quotation from Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations to prompt a discussion of how likely it is that any country will ever have completely free trade.

Pins, Pencils, and the Invisible Hand

Explore a pin factory with Adam Smith and contemplate the creation of the humble pencil to understand better how markets and prices help people coordinate their economic activity.

AdamSmithWorks Lesson Plans

Original, classroom-ready activities to use with your students TODAY.

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Essays on Philosophical Subjects

Reflecting Adam Smith’s wide learning and varied interests, these essays shed considerable light on his place in the Scottish Enlightenment. Included are histories of astronomy, ancient logic, and ancient physics; essays on the “imitative” arts and the affinity between music, dancing, and poetry; and a critical review of Samuel Johnson’s famous Dictionary, which Smith originally published in the Edinburgh Review (1755–1756).