Adam Smith on the Ancients and the Moderns

ISBN-13: 9780815364030 / Twarda / 2024 / 288 str.

Gloria Vivenza

Opis

The classics heavily influenced many aspects of European modern culture, yet it is not easy to trace their intellectual power on any author. Gloria Vivenza takes on the impressive task of examining how philosophy, history, literature, politics, ethics all played a part in shaping Adam Smith’s thought as a scholar, philosopher and economist.

Spis treści

Chap. 1: Reading the classics

1. The Classics in the Baroque age
2. Classical studies and modern thinking: Adam Smith’s synthesis
3. Aristocratic virtues and commercial ethics
4. Paganism, religion and conscience in Adam Smith’s writings

References

Chap. 2: Between history and philosophy

2.1 On ancient demography

2.2 On historical writing

2.3 On the interpretation of ancient history

2.4 ‘Otherness’ and classical citizensdhip

2.5 Smith’s history of ancient philosophy

References

Chap. 3: Philosophy and politics

3.1 Cato and the republican ideal

3.2 Ancient and modern freedom

3.3 Adam Smith and democracy

3.4 Labour and political activity

References

Chap- 4: Benevolence and other virtues

4.1 Studies on Smith’s relationship with the classics

4.2 Virtue and self-control: apathy or medietas?

4.3 Classical origins of benevolence

4.3 Closing remarks

References

　

　

　

　

O autorze

Gloria Vivenza studied at the Faculty of Letters in the University of Padua, then she began her academic career as Professor of Economic History at the University of Catania, and History of Economic Thought at the University of Verona. She is Life Member of the Clare Hall college in the University of Cambridge, U.K. She analysed the relevance of the classical training in Adam Smith’s works in her book Adam Smith and the classics, and in several essays on the same subject.