Adam Smith and Rousseau: Ethics, Politics, Economics

by Maria Pia Paganelli (Editor), Dennis C. Rasmussen (Editor), Craig Smith (Editor)

Overview

Looks at all aspects of the pivotal intellectual relationship between two key figures of the Enlightenment

Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–78) and Adam Smith (1723–90) are two of the foremost thinkers of the European Enlightenment. They who made seminal contributions to moral and political philosophy and shaped some of the key concepts of modern political economy. Though we have no solid evidence that they met in person, we do know that they shared many friends and interlocutors. In particular, David Hume was Smith’s closest intellectual associate and was also the one who arranged for Rousseau’s stay in England in 1766.

This collection brings together an international and interdisciplinary group of Adam Smith and Rousseau scholars to explore the key shared concerns of these two great thinkers in politics, philosophy, economics, history and literature

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781474452687
Publisher:	Edinburgh University Press
Publication date:	08/07/2019
Series:	Edinburgh Studies in Scottish Philosophy
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x (d)

About the Author

Maria Pia Paganelli is Associate Professor in the Department of Economics at Trinity University, San Antonio, Texas. She is the co-editor of The Oxford Handbook on Adam Smith (OUP, 2013) along with Christopher Berry and Craig Smith. She has written extensively in journals on David Hume and Adam Smith.

Dennis C. Rasmussen is Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at Tufts University. He is the author of The Pragmatic Enlightenment: Recovering the Liberalism of Hume, Smith, Montesquieu and Voltaire (Cambridge UniversityPress, 2014), The Problems and Promise of Commercial Society: Adam Smith’s Response to Rousseau (Penn State UniversityPress, 2008).

Craig Smith is Adam Smith Senior Lecturer in the Scottish Enlightenment in the School of Social and Political Sciences at The University of Glasgow.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments; Citations and Abbreviations; Series Editor’s Introduction; Part I: Adam Smith and Jean-Jacques Rousseau; 1. Introduction, Maria Pia Paganelli, Dennis C. Rasmussen and Craig Smith; 2. On the Place of Politics in Commercial Society, Ryan Patrick Hanley; 3. Rousseau and the Scottish Enlightenment: Connections and Disconnections, Mark Hulliung; Part II: Self-interest and Sympathy; 4. The Role of Interpersonal Comparisons in Moral Learning and the Sources of Recognition Respect: Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s amour-propre and Adam Smith’s sympathy, Christel Fricke; 5. Actors and Spectators: Rousseau's response to eighteenth-century debates on self-interest, Mark Hill; 6. Pursuing Sympathy without Vanity: Interpreting Smith’s Critique of Rousseau through Smith’s Critique of Mandeville, John McHugh; Part III: Moral Sentiments and Spectatorship; 7. Adam Smith and Jean-Jacques Rousseau on the Vices of the Marketplace, Michael Schleeter; 8. Julie’s Garden and the Impartial Spectator: an examination of Smithean themes in Rousseau’s La Nouvelle Héloïse, Tabitha Baker; 9. Sentimental Conviction: Rousseau’s Apologia and the Impartial Spectator, Adam Schoene; Part IV: Commercial Society and Justice; 10. Being and Appearing: self-falsification, exchange and freedom in Rousseau and Adam Smith, Charles L. Griswold; 11. Citizens, Markets and Social Order: An Aristotelian Reading of Smith and Rousseau on Justice, Jimena Hurtado; Part V: Politics and Freedom; 12. Smith, Rousseau and the True Spirit of a Republican, Dennis C. Rasmussen; 13. Left to Their Own Devices: Smith and Rousseau on Public Opinion and the Role of the State, Jason Neidleman; 14. Rousseau and Smith: Sympathy, Justice and Cosmopolitics, Neil Saccamano; Notes on Contributors; Index.

What People are Saying About This

This excellent volume deepens our understanding of the relationship between the ideas and arguments of Smith and Rousseau, and succeeds in making it clear that our understanding of each of these hugely important philosophers depends to a significant extent on our understanding of the other.

University of St.Andrews Professor James Harris

This excellent volume deepens our understanding of the relationship between the ideas and arguments of Smith and Rousseau, and succeeds in making it clear that our understanding of each of these hugely important philosophers depends to a significant extent on our understanding of the other.

Editorial Reviews

"This volume is nicely done ... Smith and Rousseau studies are both in robust health right now, but with only a few scholars who are capable of writing well about both philosophers. This volume will assist with the on-going work of cross-fertilisation, and make it much easier in future for more to follow suit." — Christopher Brooke, University of Cambridge, Journal of Scottish Philosophy

From the Publisher

This volume is nicely done … Smith and Rousseau studies are both in robust health right now, but with only a few scholars who are capable of writing well about both philosophers. This volume will assist with the on-going work of cross-fertilisation, and make it much easier in future for more to follow suit.

Journal of Scottish Philosophy - Christopher Brooke