Challenging the clichés: How recent scholarship refreshes the interpretation of Adam Smith’s oeuvre

Abstract

Abstract Adam Smith was born 300 years ago, in June 1723. The son of a Scottish lawyer and customs commissioner grew to become a great Enlightenment thinker who gained global fame for his writings in moral philosophy and political economy. His second major work, the “Wealth of Nations” (1776), enabled economics to establish itself as a separate academic discipline. In numerous countries, the book had not only a theoretical but also a practical policy impact. Yet many distortions crept into the reception history of Smith’s oeuvre. For some years now, an interdisciplinary group of Smith scholars has taken on the received wisdom to challenge the clichés. In this survey written on the occasion of the Adam Smith tricentenary, Karen Horn presents some insights from recent Smith scholarship and shows just how inspiring and fruitful an engagement with the great Scot continues to be – even for economists, who are so far remarkably underrepresented in this activity.