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‘Mere Inventions of the Imagination’: A Survey of Recent Literature on Adam Smith

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  • Brown, Vivienne

Abstract

As late twentieth-century discourses of modernity and postmodernity invoke their Enlightenment heritage in a search for the origins of their present achievements and predicaments, Adam Smith's works are still seen as a canonic representative of that heritage. Smith has long been evoked as the ‘father’ of economics and the original proponent of laissez-faire capitalism, but the political changes in recent decades have reconstituted his iconic status. With the full range of Smith's published and unpublished writings and lectures now widely available, there has been a huge growth in the scholarly literature on Smith which has subjected this traditional view to searching questions. The overwhelming conclusion to emerge is that Smith's works display a subtlety and complexity that is at odds with the received image of Smith as the spokesman of modernity, but the diversity of interpretation raises some difficult methodological issues.

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  • Brown, Vivienne, 1997. "‘Mere Inventions of the Imagination’: A Survey of Recent Literature on Adam Smith," Economics and Philosophy, Cambridge University Press, vol. 13(2), pages 281-312, October.
  • Handle: RePEc:cup:ecnphi:v:13:y:1997:i:02:p:281-312_00
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    Cited by:

    1. Joshua Henkel, 2022. "Economics & Biology: The whole is something besides the parts – a complementary approach to a bioeconomy," Bremen Papers on Economics & Innovation 2210, University of Bremen, Faculty of Business Studies and Economics.
    2. Jonathan B. Wight, 2005. "Adam Smith and Greed," Journal of Private Enterprise, The Association of Private Enterprise Education, vol. 21(Fall 2005), pages 46-58.

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