ABSTRACT
James Alvey’s new book on Smith sets out to examine a ‘new, deeper Adam Smith Problem’ (p. 235) that he believes runs through the body of Smith’s work. It differs from other recent re-engagements with the Adam Smith Problem, notably that of James Otteson in his Adam Smith’s Marketplace of Life, by re-examining Smith’s thought through the lens of teleology. There is nothing remarkable about the contention that there are both optimistic and pessimistic aspects of Smith’s thought, but Alvey’s book seeks to demonstrate that the tension between these attitudes can be accounted for by Smith’s apparently contradictory attitudes towards the notion of a teleological explanation of commercial society.
