From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
Adam Smith (baptised
June 5 (
OS) /
June 16 (
NS)
1723 –
July 17,
1790) was a
Scottish moral philosopher and a pioneering
political economist. One of the key figures of the intellectual movement known as the
Scottish Enlightenment, he is known primarily as the author of two treatises:
The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759), and
An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776). The latter was one of the earliest attempts to systematically study the historical development of industry and commerce in Europe, as well as a sustained attack on the doctrines of
mercantilism; it also contained Smith's explanation of how rational self-interest can lead to common well-being. Smith's work helped to create the modern academic discipline of
economics and provided one of the best-known intellectual rationales for
free trade,
capitalism, and
libertarianism.
