Elgar Companion to Adam Smith - 9781845420192

Justifying the existence of yet another collection focusing on the 18th-century Scottish philosopher and political economist Adam Smith, Young (economics, St. Lawrence U.) notes that this volume is distinguished by the fact that its contributions were written exclusively by economists, including historians of economics and some Smith specialists, and its concerns are primarily oriented, unlike the Cambridge Companion, towards the history of economics. He has included 19 papers, addressing such topics as the roots of Smith's moral philosophy in classical virtue ethics, the Aristotelian influences on Smith's thought, the problem of consistency between Smith's The Theory of Moral Sentiments and his Wealth of Nations, issues of agency in the two works, the role of religion in shaping Smith's moral and economic theory, Smith's economic methodology, the influence of the French Physiocrats on Smith, a general equilibrium model that builds on Smith's approach to general interdependence, the incompatibility of the neoclassical paradigm with Smith's theorem that the division and specialization of labor depends on the extent of the market, Smithian insights currently being applied in behavioral and experimental economists, Smith's views on economic policy and the role of government in the economy, Smith's critique of the "mercantile system," and Smith's writings on Scottish militias as a clue to resolve the civic humanist versus natural jurisprudence debate in Smith scholarship. Annotation ©2010 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)