Adam Smith Essay Research Paper In eighteenth

Adam Smith Essay, Research Paper

In eighteenth century England, one would know of a man by

the name of Adam Smith and be marveled by his theories and

philosophies. Early on in Smith s life he was noted for being an

intelligent child which lead him to go to Oxford at the age of

seventeen on a scholarship. Here the foundation of his future

began, the teachers at Oxford were reluctant and thus Smith found

himself reading whatever he chose including a questionable work

of David Hume, A Treatise of Human Nature, which ends up being an

influence on him. He remained at Oxford for six years,

graduated, and then moved on to the University of Glasgow, where

although many of his actions were often disapproved of, he was

still admired among his students.

Already known for his scholarly achievements, well educated

although a self-taught graduate of Oxford, and his absentminded

persona, his first book The Theory of Moral Sentiments greatly

increased his notoriety. The theory that he introduced about

human self-interest and moral judgment attracted much interest

and debate. He proposed that humans being selfish creatures are

capable of moral judgment only due to their ability of placing

themselves in the objective view of the third-person. The

theories he spoke of in this book may be what spawned the ideas

for his second book, The Wealth of Nations, the work he is better

known for to this date.

As a tutor to the son of Townshend, they went to France

together and spent just over a year in Toulouse in absolute

boredom. They then moved to the south of France and met Voltaire

whom Smith worshipped, then to Geneva, and to Paris. This is

when Smith began work on a treatise of political economy, this

was the official beginning of a book later to be known as The

Wealth of Nations, but it would be 12 years before its

completion. In Paris, Smith, after learning a limited but decent

amount of French, was able to talk to one of the greater French

economic thinkers, a doctor by the name of Francois Quesnay, the

creator of the economic school Physiocracy. Part of this

Physiocracy was a chart called a tableau economique that insisted

that wealth sprang from production and that it flowed through the

nation, from hand to hand, replenishing the body social like the

circulation of blood. The main problem with Physiocracy was it

insisting only the agricultural classes produced true wealth and

that manufacturing and commercial classes only affected it in a

sterile way. Even though it introduced a laissez-faire view of

the economy which was not common in their time, it still failed

to recognize the importance of labor everywhere and not just on

the land. Smith perceived that labor was the source of value.

After some unfortunate incidents involving who he was

tutoring, Smith moved back to England where his book started to

form. This was when Smith met Benjamin Franklin, who then gave

him information about the new American Colonies and made him gain

a certain appreciation for them and the significance they may

later have. His book was finally published in 1776. Although it

wasn t necessarily an original book, it s ideas weren t all new,

but in this work Smith was able to combine all of the great ideas

and theories of those before him as he also mentioned over a

hundred authors. Smith was extensive with his credits as he was

with the entire book. He touches on an incredible amount of

subject and continues on side details for pages giving it a

general unorganized layout. It was never meant to be a textbook,

but it still didn t fall short of being a revolutionary

masterpiece. He doesn t focus on any one class or side, but

instead explains the role and importance of each. His concern

was the condition and wealth of the entire nation, all of

society. Being in a modern world, where the consumption of goods

and services is what drives the economic life.

One of Smith s main purpose was to lay out a basic mechanism

by which society keeps together. He managed to put basic

principles behind the busy industrial world that keeps it working

without any central planning or any set tradition. This is

Smith s concept of the invisible hand where the private

interests and the passions of men are naturally directed towards

which is most agreeable to the interest of the whole society.

Here he brings up this concept of the market mechanism, where the

individual is kept in line with everyone else and will only

change if all changes over the years, but will still remain

within this mechanism. These simple laws tell us that given to

certain circumstances, evaluating them will bring about

foreseeable results. They show us how the drive of the

individual self-interest does not ruin the economy by resulti

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