Contributed by: Chandni Tolaney (2012-2014), WeSchool
He
is the Scottish philosopher who is best known for his work An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the
Wealth of Nations. Another famous work of this pioneer of political
economy is The Theory of Moral Sentiments. He was born on 5 June 1923 in
OS Kirkcaldy, Scotland. He studied in one of
the best secondary schools there till the age of 14 and later entered
University of Glasgow and studied moral philosophy.
The Wealth of Nations was published in 1776,the book offers one of the world's first collected
descriptions of what builds nations' wealth and is today a fundamental work in classical economics. This is the reason why no
class of Economics goes without a mention of this book.Through reflection over
the economics at the beginning of the Industrial
Revolution the book touches upon broad topics as the division of labor, productivity and free
markets.The book received splendid response and its
first edition was sold out in the first six months.
Back in Edinburgh,
Adam Smith moved in intellectual circles and gave a number of public lectures
that brought him to the attention of the wider intellectual public such that at
the age of twenty-eight he became Professor of Logic at Glasgow University in
1751. Shortly thereafter, in 1752, Adam Smith secured the more richly rewarded
professorial chair of Moral Philosophy at the University of Glasgow.
Some of the interesting facts about Adam Smith:
- · As a child he was always close to his mother and she was the one who motivated him to pursue his scholarly ambitions
- · He remained a bachelor his entire life
- · Smith was a reserved and absent minded individual much inclined to enjoy the books in his own library
- · In 1777 he was named lord rector of the University of Edinburgh and in 1778 was appointed as commissioner of customs in Scotland
- · During the latter part of his life, he took a tutoring position that allowed him to travel throughout Europe, where he met other intellectual leaders of his day
- · Smith has been commemorated in the UK on banknotes printed by two different banks, making him the first Scotsman to feature on an English banknote
On July 17th, 1790, Adam Smith died at Edinburgh; he was buried in the Canongate churchyard.
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