Adam smith biography economics for dummies

Adam Smith’s 1776 work An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations is regarded as one of the most influential books ever written.

Its foundational ideas of free markets, division of labour and gross domestic product provided the basis for modern economic theory, leading many to consider Smith the ‘Father of Modern Economics’.

A central figure in the Scottish Enlightenment, Smith was also a social philosopher and academic.

Here are 10 facts about Adam Smith.

1.

Smith was a moral philosopher as well as an economic theorist

Both Smith’s major works, The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759) and The Wealth of Nations (1776), are concerned with self-interest and self-governance.

In Moral Sentiments, Smith examined how natural instincts can be rationalised through “mutual sympathy” to create moral judgements.

In The Wealth of Nations, Smith explored how free-market economies lead to self-regulation and the advancing of society’s wider interest.