Adam Smith

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Adam Smith
Adam Smith was a British philosopher and a Scottish Enlightenment figure. He was also among the pioneers of political economy, a term that is often used in describing the study of production and trade, as well as their relationship with government, custom and the law (Copley and Kathryn 120). At the age of 14, Smith enrolled at the University of Glasgow, where he studied on scholarship. Upon graduating, he entered the Balliol College at Oxford, where he graduated with broad knowledge of European literature. With his 1776 treatise titled An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, often foreshortened as The Wealth of Nations, Smith proved himself as the leading pundit of economic thought. His works inspired other renowned philosophers and economists, such as Karl Marx, David Ricardo, Milton Friedman, and John Maynard Keynes. His 1959 exposition titled The Theory of Moral Sentiments (hereafter referred to as Moral Sentiments), together with his work The Wealth of Nations, are considered among his best works (Keppler 17; Rima 112). As noted before, the latter is regarded not only as Smith’s magnum opus, but as the first contemporary work of economics, as well. Even though Smith was a philosopher and not an economist, he is considered the founding father of modern economics and ranks among the most influential theorists of economics to date.
Moral Sentiments, which was Smith’s first work, was published in 175…