ABSTRACT
Samuel Fleischacker has given us a rich philosophical commentary on Adam Smith’s greatest work, Wealth of Nations. He has succeeded admirably in his attempt ‘to bring us back to the virtues that lie within and just beyond the frame of WN’ (p. xv). Economists, intellectual historians, and philosophers have distinctive approaches to Smith’s works. Here I will focus entirely upon what Smith has to say about these virtues and how they are detected. As a philosopher I am interested in Smith’s arguments and their context, much of which involves David Hume. They were in regular contact for over twenty-five years until Hume’s death in 1776, and it is agreed that Hume exerted a substantial influence upon Smith. Besides sometimes being critics of one another’s positions and arguments, they were nonetheless allies in a campaign against narrow moral systems.
