IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jeborg/v184y2021icp739-747.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Adam Smith as Solon: Accommodating on the edges of liberty, not abandoning it

Author

Listed:
  • Clark, Michael J.

Abstract

This paper puts forth evidence that Adam Smith held liberty as a central principle, but also that he adopted an approach of strategic yielding and caution. Smith associated this accommodating approach with the Athenian official Solon, who put forth laws that attempted to be “the best that the people can bear.” I argue that the view of Smith as Solon, accommodating where necessary, is underrepresented in the modern literature and is in contrast to views suggesting that the liberty principle was not so central to Smith's teachings.

Suggested Citation

  • Clark, Michael J., 2021. "Adam Smith as Solon: Accommodating on the edges of liberty, not abandoning it," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 184(C), pages 739-747.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jeborg:v:184:y:2021:i:c:p:739-747
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jebo.2020.08.029
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167268120303061
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jebo.2020.08.029?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Winch, Donald, 1983. "Science and the Legislator: Adam Smith and After," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 93(371), pages 501-520, September.
    2. Winch,Donald, 1996. "Riches and Poverty," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521559201.
    3. Jacob Viner, 1927. "Adam Smith and Laissez Faire," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 35, pages 198-198.
    4. Daniel Klein, 2007. "Review of Ronald Hamowy, The political sociology of freedom: Adam Ferguson and F.A. Hayek," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 20(1), pages 91-94, March.
    5. Iain McLean, 2006. "Adam Smith, Radical and Egalitarian," Palgrave Macmillan Books, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-1-349-73822-9.
    6. Keith Tribe, 1999. "Adam Smith: Critical Theorist?," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 37(2), pages 609-632, June.
    7. West, Edwin G, 1997. "Adam Smith's Support for Money and Banking Regulation: A Case of Inconsistency," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 29(1), pages 127-134, February.
    8. Kennedy, Gavin, 2011. "The Hidden Adam Smith In His Alleged Theology," Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Cambridge University Press, vol. 33(3), pages 385-402, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Erik W. Matson, 2022. "What is liberal about Adam Smith's “liberal plan”?," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 89(2), pages 593-610, October.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Scott Drylie, 2020. "Professional Scholarship from 1893 to 2020 on Adam Smith’s Views on School Funding: A Heterodox Examination," Econ Journal Watch, Econ Journal Watch, vol. 17(2), pages 350–391-3, September.
    2. Drylie, Scott, 2021. "Adam Smith on schooling: A classical liberal rereading," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 184(C), pages 748-770.
    3. Callum Williams, 2015. "Famine: Adam Smith and Foucauldian Political Economy," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 62(2), pages 171-190, May.
    4. Klein, Daniel B., 2021. "Conservative liberalism: Hume, Smith, and Burke as policy liberals and polity conservatives," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 183(C), pages 861-873.
    5. Paul Oslington, 2012. "God and the Market: Adam Smith’s Invisible Hand," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 108(4), pages 429-438, July.
    6. Matson, Erik W., 2021. "The Edifying Discourses of Adam Smith: Focalism, Commerce, and Serving the Common Good," OSF Preprints uye54, Center for Open Science.
    7. Wagner-Tsukamoto Sigmund, 2013. "The Adam Smith Problem Revisited: A Methodological Resolution," Journal des Economistes et des Etudes Humaines, De Gruyter, vol. 19(1), pages 63-99, September.
    8. Mark Blaug, 2001. "No History of Ideas, Please, We're Economists," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 15(1), pages 145-164, Winter.
    9. Andrew Lynn, 2022. "Ethics, Economics, and the Specter of Naturalism: The Enduring Relevance of the Harmony Doctrine School of Economics," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 178(3), pages 661-673, July.
    10. Michel Zouboulakis, 2010. "Trustworthiness as a Moral Determinant of Economic Activity: Lessons from the Classics," Forum for Social Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 39(3), pages 209-221, January.
    11. Gavin Kennedy, 2015. "Adam Smith's Use of the 'Gravitation' Metaphor," Economic Thought, World Economics Association, vol. 4(1), pages 67-79, March.
    12. 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.
    13. Roger E. Backhouse & Steven G. Medema, 2009. "Retrospectives: On the Definition of Economics," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 23(1), pages 221-233, Winter.
    14. Mueller, Paul D., 2021. "Adam Smith on moral judgment: Why people tend to make better judgments within liberal institutions," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 184(C), pages 813-825.
    15. Ciani Scarnicci, Manuela, 2012. "Economics and ethics: a historical approach," MPRA Paper 38713, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    16. Gilbert Faccarello, 2017. "Sæculum," The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(4), pages 625-639, July.
    17. Paul Oslington, 2012. "Jacob Viner on Adam Smith: Development and reception of a theological reading," The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(2), pages 287-301, May.
    18. Susan Howson, 2017. "Donald Winch (15 April 1935–12 June 2017)," The Economic and Labour Relations Review, , vol. 28(4), pages 565-568, December.
    19. Ashok Chakravarti, 2012. "Institutions, Economic Performance and the Visible Hand," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 14751.
    20. Carlos Rodríguez Braun, 2021. "Adam Smith’s liberalism," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 34(4), pages 465-478, December.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Adam smith; Liberty; Rhetoric; Solon; Political economy;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • B12 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought through 1925 - - - Classical (includes Adam Smith)
    • H11 - Public Economics - - Structure and Scope of Government - - - Structure and Scope of Government
    • B41 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - Economic Methodology - - - Economic Methodology

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jeborg:v:184:y:2021:i:c:p:739-747. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jebo .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.