Adam Smith and Rousseau

Jean-Jacques Rousseau is widely considered the first Counter-Enlightenment thinker. Adam Smith was the first Enlightenment thinker to provide a significant response to Rousseau. The lecture will examine three key ways in which Smith’s work responded to Rousseau: the differences in their views on the impact of commerce on morality, the relationship between liberty and citizenship, and the idea of progress.

 

Recommended Reader

Griswold, Charles L. 2018. Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Adam Smith: A Philosophical Encounter. London: Routledge. ISBN: 978-0-367-88499-4

Hanley, Ryan P. Adam Smith and the Character of Virtue. Cambridge University Press, 2009. 978-0521449298

Rasmussen, Dennis C. The Problems and Promises of Commercial Society: Adam Smith's Response to Rousseau. Penn State University Press, 2008. ISBN: 978-0271033495

Rousseau, J.J. Discourse on the Origin and Foundations of Inequality among Men (Second Discourse). Smith, Adam, The Theory of Moral Sentiments. Liberty Fund.

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Course Year:

2022

Instructor

Ross B. Emmett, Ph.D.

Professor of Political Economy, School of Civic and Economic Thought and Leadership, and Director of the Center for the Study of Economic Liberty
Arizona State University