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The Problem of Liberty in the thought of Adam Smith

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 June 2009

Edward J. Harpham
Edward J. Harpham
Affiliation:
The University of Texas at Dallas, School of Social Sciences, Gr.3.1 Box 830688, Richardson, Texas 75083-0688; harpham@utdallas.edu.
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Extract

In this paper I propose to investigate the problem of liberty in Adam Smith's work. Suggesting that there is a “problem” may strike some as strange. After all, is not Smith simply the great defender of the system of natural liberty, a set of economic proposals that would remove the State from the business of directing the economy? Does he not maintain unequivocally that individuals are the best judges of their own self-interest and argue that they should be allowed to commit their labor and capital to those enterprises they deem most useful? Is Smith not one of the great defenders of the concept of negative liberty in modern liberal thought?

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the History of Economic Thought , Volume 22 , Issue 2 , June 2000 , pp. 217 - 237
Copyright
Copyright © The History of Economics Society 2000

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