Adam Smith

Adam Smith (June ~5, 1723 — July 17, 1790) was a Scottish philosopher and economist who is best known as the author of An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth Of Nations (1776), one of the most influential books ever written.

Life

Smith was born in Kirkcaldy, in Fife, Scotland, in 1723. Smith's father died two months before he was born.

Smith entered the University of Glasgow when he was 14 and studied moral philosophy. In 1740, he was the graduate scholar presented to undertake postgraduate studies at Balliol College, Oxford, under the Snell Exhibition. His time at Oxford was not a happy one, according to his letters. Near the end of his time there, he began suffering from shaking fits, probably the symptoms of a nervous breakdown. He left Oxford University in 1746, before his scholarship ended.

Smith began delivering public lectures in 1748 at the University of Edinburgh. In 1750, Smith met the philosopher David Hume, who was his senior by more than a decade. In 1751, Smith earned a professorship at Glasgow University teaching logic courses. When the head of Moral Philosophy in Glasgow died the next year, Smith took over the position.

In 1762, the University of Glasgow conferred on Smith the title of Doctor of Laws (LL.D.). At the end of 1763, he obtained an offer from Charles Townshend—who had been introduced to Smith by David Hume—to tutor his stepson, Henry Scott, the young Duke of Buccleuch. Smith resigned from his professorship in 1764 to take the tutoring position.

The Wealth of Nations was published in 1776 and was an instant success, selling out its first edition in only six months.

Smith died in the northern wing of Panmure House in Edinburgh on 17 July 1790 after a painful illness.

Works

• The Theory of Moral Sentiments
• An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations