Andy's Research Day Assignment

Source to Present:

This is an excerpt from Smith’s Lectures on Jurisprudence which were delivered in 1763.  This portion focuses on Smith’s analysis of the respective roles of workers and philosophers in inventing new machines.

“The invention of machines vastly increases the quantity of work which is done.  This is evident in the most simple operations.  A plough with two men and three horses will till more ground than twenty men could dig with the spade.  A wind or watermill, directed by the miller, will do more work than eight men with handmills, and this, too with great ease, whereas the handmill was reckoned the hardest labour a man could be put to, and therefore none was employed in it but those who had been guilty of some capital crime.  But the handmill was far from being a contemptible machine, and had required a good deal of ingenuity in the invention.  How far superior was this to the rubbing of the corn betwixt two rough stones, a method practised not only in the savage countries, but by the inhabitants of the remote parts of this country!  When one is employed constantly on one thing, his mind will naturally be employed in devising the most proper means of improving it.  It was probably a farmer who first invented the plough, thought he ploughwright, perhaps, having been accustomed to think on it.  And there is none of the inventions of that machine so mysterious that one or other of these could not have been the inventor of it.  The drill-plough, the most ingenious of any, was the invention of farmer.  A [labourer] who had been set to rub corn into powder betwixt two hard and rough stones, was probably the person who first thought of facilitating the labour by supporting one of the stones on a spindle and turning it round by horizontal crank.  He, too, might improve it by means of the feeder and hopper, and, with the assistance of the millwright, might adapt the trundle, etc. by means of which and the hole in the upper stone, the feeder and hopper supplied it with grain.  The wheelwright also, by an effort of thought and after long experience, might contrive the cogwheel, which, turned by a vertical winch, facilitated the labour exceedingly, as it gave the man a superior power over it.  But the man who first thought of applying a stream of water, and still more, the blast of the wind, to turn this, by an outer wheel in place of a crank, was neither a miller nor a millwright, but a philosopher, one of those men who, thought they work at nothing themselves, yet, by observing all, are enabled by this extended way of thinking to apply things together to produce effects to which they seem no way adapted.  To apply a power of a sort which has been used in that way before is what many, nay, any, are capable of, who are much employed in that way; but to apply powers which have never been used in that way, and seem altogether unfit, must be the work of one of these general observers whom we call philosophers.  The fire-engine which raises water by a power which appears hardly applicable to such an effect, though it has been improved no doubt by artists who have observed, was the invention of an ingenious philosopher; and such without a doubt was the inventor of wind and water-mills.”

Sources

Primary

Archival:

Bannerman Papers, MS. Gen 1035/126 through MS. Gen. 1035/174, Special Collections, University of Glasgow Library.

This collection contains the bulk of Smith’s correspondence that has survived to the present.  The dates of the letters range from 1740 to 1790 (Smith was born in 1723 and died in 1790).  In particular, his correspondence with his friends David Hume, the philosopher, and William Cullen, a Scottish physician, contain commentary especially relevant to Smith’s views on education and commercial society.

Student Notes on Adam Smith’s Lectures on Jurisprudence, vol. 1-6, MS. Gen 94 and MS. Gen 1063, Special Collections, University of Glasgow Library.

These notes represent a faithful transcription of Smith’s Lectures on Jurisprudence, which served as a blueprint for The Wealth of Nations.  Addressing a diverse set of topics including history, political economy, and education, among others, the lectures provide some insight as to how Smith’s thought evolved before and during the composition of his published works.

Miscellaneous Correspondence, MS. Gen 1035/226, 227, 229, 238, 239 and MS. Gen 1097/1-8, Special Collections, University of Glasgow Library.

These letters contain Smith’s discussions from the period between 1764 and 1766 during his time as tutor to Henry Scott, the Duke of Buccleuch.  Smith traveled with Scott to France during this period.  While working with Scott, he solidified his oppositional stance to the European Tour as a major component of education for young elites.

Print:

Smith, Adam. 1987. The Theory of Moral Sentiments, vol. 1 of The Glasgow edition of the works and correspondence of Adam Smith. Oxford [Oxfordshire]: Clarendon Press.

This is Smith’s first major work, originally published in 1759, and contains an exhaustive exposition of his moral philosophy.  It is often analyzed independently of The Wealth of Nations, but I plan on bringing the two works into direct conversation in my thesis.

Smith, Adam. 1987. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, vol. 2 of The Glasgow edition of the works and correspondence of Adam Smith. Oxford [Oxfordshire]: Clarendon Press.

The most famous of Smith’s contributions, Wealth remains a part of the modern economic vernacular and is widely recognized as a foundational text for the economic discipline.  A meandering text, Book V contains the fullest and most detailed elaboration of Smith’s views on education.  He addresses primary education, both for common people and elites, moral education, and education at the university level.

Secondary

Alvey, James. “Moral education as a means to human perfection and social order: Adam Smith’s view of education in commercial society,” in History of the Human Sciences (London: SAGE Publications, 2001).

This article discusses Smith’s views on moral education.  Alvey demonstrates that Smith envisioned moral education as taking place within families and outside the purview of a state-administered educational apparatus.

Conlin, Jonathan. Adam Smith. (London: Reaktion Books, 2016).

This text explores the ways in which Smith’s thought has been retroactively manipulated into uncritically supporting modern economic agendas.  Conlin argues that, at its core, Smith’s thought is grounded in holistic moral philosophy and is altogether alien from the modern discipline of economics with which it is continually associated.

Cropsey, Joseph. Polity and Economy: an interpretation of the principles of Adam Smith. (The Hague: M. Nijhoff, 1957).

Cropsey explores “the Adam Smith question” of whether Smith presented two separate and mutually exclusive moral and economic philosophies in his two principal works or whether they can be viewed as an integrated whole.   This question initially sparked my interest in Smith for my thesis project.

Fitzgibbons, Athol. “The moral foundations of The Wealth of Nations” in The International Journal of Social Economics.

In this article, Fitzgibbons also enters the debate surrounding “the Adam Smith question” and argues that The Theory of Moral Sentiments, in fact, underpins The Wealth of Nations.  In his view, Smith presents one coherent theoretical schema for understanding morality as well as commercial society, and how they interact.

Gay, Peter. The Enlightenment: an interpretation. (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1967).

Gay’s seminal two-volume study of the Enlightenment provides excellent context for my research on Smith.  I plan to use it as a contextual reference as needed as well as a resource for discovering  relevant secondary sources.

Griswold, Charles. Adam Smith and the virtues of enlightenment. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998).

Griswold explores Smith’s connections (and criticism of) ancient philosophy, painting him as a proponent of quintessential eighteenth century liberalism.  He focuses primarily on Smith’s moral and political thought.

Hanley, Ryan Patrick. Adam Smith and the Character of Virtue. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009).

Hanley focuses on Smith’s oft-overlooked critiques of commercial society.  In particular, he explores Smith’s identification of social and psychological ills that arise in the context of commercial society.  Smith hoped that education would play a significant role in combating some of these challenges.

Heilbroner, Robert. “The Paradox of Progress: Decline and Decay in The Wealth of Nations,” in Journal of the History of Ideas (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1973).

Heilbroner also combats the idea that Smith envisioned the adoption of a commercial society as a manifestation of a kind of utopian progress that would not produce new social issues and challenges.  Heilbroner’s and Hanley’s respective analyses align quite closely.

Phillipson, N. T. 2010. Adam Smith: an enlightened life. New Haven [Conn.]: Yale University Press.

Phillipson’s biography of Smith provides a useful reference point for understanding the evolution of his thought.  Detailing the events of Smith’s life from birth to death and evaluating his posthumous impact, Phillipson integrates intellectual history with biography.  He provides an excellent blueprint for the kind of analysis I would like to present in my thesis.

Rothschild, Emma. 2001. Economic sentiments: Adam Smith, Condorcet, and the Enlightenment. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press.

Rothschild’s study also delves into “the Adam Smith question” and explores what Smith’s work meant before the advent of the modern science of economics.  Investigating the connections between Smith’s two major works, she provides an excellent encapsulation of the intellectual climate of the latter part of the eighteenth century.

Skinner, Andrew. “Adam Smith and the role of the state: education as a public service,” in Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations: New Interdisciplinary Essays ed. Stephen Copley and Kathryn Sutherland (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1995).

Skinner’s article directly explores Smith’s view of state-sponsored education.  Skinner connects Smith’s educational philosophy to the ills created by the division of labor.

Viner, Jacob. “Adam Smith and Laissez Faire” in Journal of Political Economy, ed. Harald Uhlig (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1927).

In this article, Viner focuses on the extent to which Smith saw an underlying unity and coherence in human activity when left free from state interference.  He investigates when and to what extent Smith advocated state intervention in various aspects of political and social life.

Weinstein, Jack Russell. Adam Smith’s Pluralism: rationality, education, and the moral sentiments. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2013).

Weinstein approaches Smith’s thought through the lens of modern philosophy.  Evaluating his theories from a philosophical (rather than historical) perspective, Weinstein spends significant portions of the book describing and clarifying Smith’s educational theory.