Adam Smith
An outline biography
Adam Smith was born in 1723 in Kirkaldy, Fife, Scotland. His
father, who had held the post of "comptroller of customs" at
Kirkaldy, died some six months before his birth. His mother,
Margaret Douglas, came from a family of substantial landowners.
In 1737, at the age of fourteen, he began a course of study
in moral philosophy at Glasgow university. At that time Glasgow
was at the center of the so-called "Scottish Enlightenment" and
he was much influenced by the personality of his famous
philosophy teacher Francis Hutcheson. In 1740 he graduated and
was awarded a prestigious "Snell Exhibition" scholarship. He
subsequently headed south on horseback, to journey over several
days, to study at Oxford University.
At Balliol College, Oxford, Smith was subsequently taught in
line with the traditions of Classical scholarship and also seems
to have interested himself privately in philosophy. He did not
feel he was being educated in line with his own interests, he
also fell into the disfavour of the authorities due to his taking
a great interest in the "atheistic" philosophical works of David
Hume. In the event he relinquished his scholarship and returned
north to Edinburgh in 1746.
Back in Edinburgh, and with the sponsorship of the lawyer
and philosopher Lord Kames, he was facilitated in giving a number
of public lectures. These lectures brought him to the attention
of the intellectual public. In 1751, at age twenty-eight, he
became a professor of Logic at Glasgow, and then, the following
year, took the more remunerative Chair of Moral Philosophy.
Smith was a reserved, bookish, and absent minded individual.
Though often awkward in social situations he acquired a great
reputation as an interesting and animated lecturer. In his
lecturing he followed Francis Hutcheson's example of lecturing in
English rather than the traditional scholarly language -
Latin.
Glasgow, in these years was a center of the "Scottish
Enlightenment", and in his spare time Smith was known to
socialise with, amongst others, James Watt and David Hume and
also with many amongst the merchant class of a rapidly
economically expanding city. Glasgow at this time had a Political
Economy Club that had been founded by such merchant
interests.
In 1759, Smith published his Theory of Moral
Sentiments a work in which he principally sought to reflect
about the source of man's ability to make moral judgements given
that men are also much inclined look to their material
self-interest and self preservation.
In 1763 he withdrew from his posts at the University of
Glasgow to take on the highly lucrative role of private tutor to
Henry Scott, 3rd Duke of Buccleuch, whom he was to
accompany on an eighteen month "Grand Tour" on the continent of
Europe. It seems that it was his Theory of Moral
Sentiments that had attracted the attention of the Duke's
guardians to considering him as a tutor for the Duke.
As tutor to the Duke Adam Smith found some of the time spent
in the French provinces hard to fill and actually seems to have
begun his masterpiece An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of
the Wealth of Nations, as a way of taking up otherwise idle
hours in the summer of 1764. In Geneva, where the Duke's party
stayed for two months, Smith met, and seems to have liked and
respected, Voltaire. In Paris he met amongst others, the
"Physiocrat" economic theorist (and court Physician) Quesnay and
the French Ministers, Turgot and Necker, as well as his old
friend David Hume who held a diplomatic post there.
On his return to London Smith stayed there for some time and
met amongst others Edmund Burke, Samuel Johnson and Edward
Gibbon. It was during this time that Adam Smith was elected to
membership of the Royal Society.
He then returned to Scotland where he stayed quietly with
his mother at his native town of Kirkcaldy and occupied himself
in study and writing. It was to be in 1776, that he finally saw
his "Wealth of Nations" through the press.
In 1777 he was named lord rector of the University of
Edinburgh and in 1778 was appointed as commissioner of customs in
Scotland. This post was well paid and Smith volunteered to
relinquish the pension he was being paid by the Duke of
Buccleuch. The Duke however preferred that he should continue in
receipt of the pension.
On July 17th, 1790, Adam Smith died at Edinburgh;
he was buried in the Canongate churchyard.
Powerful movements that led to the emergence of Modern
Capitalism are substantially based on Smith's work and hence he
deserves to be regarded as one of the most dramatically
influential philosophers or philosophic writers of modern
times.
More on Adam Smith
Wealth of Nations
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