Adam Smith on Education as a Means to Political Judgment

Even the most zealous interpreters of Adam Smith as an advocate of free markets and commercial progress have long acknowledged his support for public education. Yet the comparatively little scholarship on Smith’s educational theory never fully articulates his defense of public education, often framing it as a corrective to economic and moral problems generated by the market while ignoring its political importance. We argue here that Smith saw public education as much more than anesthesia to treat the wounds inflicted by the market. For Smith, compulsory public education not only promotes distributive justice, develops moral judgment, and cultivates good citizenship—it is vital for securing all three. A compulsory education affords citizens the opportunity to sympathize with others and be objects of sympathy while teaching them how to be skeptical of the rhetorical efforts of others. As such, this paper argues that Smith’s major works offer a potent defense of public education as a precondition for political judgment rather than a mere program “needed to offset the social costs of the division of labor.”