- Title Pages
- Illustration
- Dedication
- Acknowledgements
- List of Plates
- References and Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 Kirkcaldy
- 2 Boyhood
- 3 Glasgow
- 4 The Never to Be Forgotten Hutcheson
- 5 Oxford
- 6 A Respectable Auditory
- 7 Lectures on the History of Philosophy and Law
- 8 Called to Glasgow University
- 9 Teacher
- 10 Publishing Scholar and Administrator
- 11 The Making of The Theory of Moral Sentiments
- 12 Criticism of The Theory of Moral Sentiments
- 13 Travelling Tutor
- 14 Inquirer into the Wealth of Nations
- 15 The American Crisis and The Wealth of Nations
- 16 Euge! Belle! Dear Mr Smith
- 17 Dialogue With a Dying Man
- 18 Settlement in Edinburgh
- 19 Economic Theorist as Commissioner of Customs
- 20 Literary Pursuits
- 21 Times of Hardship and Distress
- 22 Legacy for Legislators
- 23 The Precariousness of This Life
- 24 The Great Change
- Bibliography
- Index
Lectures on the History of Philosophy and Law
Lectures on the History of Philosophy and Law
- Chapter:
- (p.97) 7 Lectures on the History of Philosophy and Law
- Source:
- The Life of Adam Smith
- Author(s):
Ian Simpson Ross
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
The strong Scottish Enlightenment interest in science created a market in Edinburgh for information about this subject, and Smith responded by providing a course that included the history of astronomy. A key part was a theory of theorizing or system building, with a system identified as an ‘imaginary machine’ invented to provide a coherent pattern of cause and effect in phenomena. His major works presented systems on this model in ethics and economics. WN's free‐enterprise system was foreshadowed in a third course given at Edinburgh on jurisprudence, in which Smith traced the development of law, and argued that humanity could evolve from barbarism to opulence, through enjoying peace, moderate taxes, also minimal justice, and reliance on the natural course of things.
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- Title Pages
- Illustration
- Dedication
- Acknowledgements
- List of Plates
- References and Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 Kirkcaldy
- 2 Boyhood
- 3 Glasgow
- 4 The Never to Be Forgotten Hutcheson
- 5 Oxford
- 6 A Respectable Auditory
- 7 Lectures on the History of Philosophy and Law
- 8 Called to Glasgow University
- 9 Teacher
- 10 Publishing Scholar and Administrator
- 11 The Making of The Theory of Moral Sentiments
- 12 Criticism of The Theory of Moral Sentiments
- 13 Travelling Tutor
- 14 Inquirer into the Wealth of Nations
- 15 The American Crisis and The Wealth of Nations
- 16 Euge! Belle! Dear Mr Smith
- 17 Dialogue With a Dying Man
- 18 Settlement in Edinburgh
- 19 Economic Theorist as Commissioner of Customs
- 20 Literary Pursuits
- 21 Times of Hardship and Distress
- 22 Legacy for Legislators
- 23 The Precariousness of This Life
- 24 The Great Change
- Bibliography
- Index