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Adam Smith and the Virtues of Enlightenment , Charles L. Griswold, Jr. Cambridge University Press, 1999, xiv + 412 pages.
| Content Provider | Semantic Scholar |
|---|---|
| Author | Schabas, Margaret |
| Copyright Year | 2000 |
| Abstract | Books about Adam Smith appear every year, but most are about Smith the political economist. This recent book is somewhat different from its cohort in that it treats Smith first and foremost as a moral philosopher, with an emphasis on his indebtedness to Plato, Aristotle and the Stoics. Charles Griswold also weaves in references to contemporary moral theorists ± Alistair McIntyre, Charles Taylor, Thomas Nagel and Martha Nussbaum ± to name just a few. Erudition springs from almost every page. I can think of no other Smith scholar who has come to terms with his moral philosophy with such depth and confidence. True, in many respects Griswold's main thesis is not at all original. Smith's political economy is but part of a broader theory of moral philosophy and jurisprudence. Griswold believes, like so many before him, that Smith intended his published works to form a coherent whole; das Adam Smith problem is a pseudo-problem. But it is the sophisticated and subtle fashion by which Griswold slays this recurrent beast that makes the book stand out. Look to the footnotes and digressions, as well as the polished articulations of Smith's ideas. Professor Griswold has an eye for Smithean metaphor and rhetoric. A lengthy passage explores his use of theatrical imagery, another his many references to nature and the natural. Life is more like a play acted on the stage, a theatrum mundi. Even nature is a spectacle, which induces our constant awe and admiration. But, as Smith notes in his essay on `The History of Astronomy', in contrast to the machinery of the operahouse which one can fully comprehend by going backstage, there is no easy access to the operations of nature. Nevertheless, by drawing so many analogies between nature and the theatre, Smith reinforced our primary efforts as spectators, impartial or otherwise. Our aim is to achieve a detached understanding of all things, the `cold esteem' with |
| Starting Page | 333 |
| Ending Page | 378 |
| Page Count | 46 |
| File Format | PDF HTM / HTML |
| DOI | 10.1017/s0266267100210298 |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | https://static.cambridge.org/resource/id/urn:cambridge.org:id:binary:20170216104931839-0575:S0266267100230290:S0266267100000298a.pdf |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | https://doi.org/10.1017/s0266267100210298 |
| Volume Number | 16 |
| Language | English |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Article |
