Adam smith biography Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Adam smith biography - Essay Example During this time he lectured on various topics, and he explained for the first time his ideas of "the obvious and simple system of natural liberty", which was the basis of his influential book entitled An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (The Wealth of Nations).1 Around 1750 Smith met the philosopher, economist and historian David Hume, one of the most famous figures of the Scottish Enlightment along Smith himself. They became close friends, and Smith was influenced by his works as it has been noted by many scholars. In 1751 Smith became a professor at Glasgow University where he lectured on logic and moral philosophy. In 1759 he published his book entitled The Theory of Moral Sentiments, which is concerned with the explanation of moral approval and disapproval. Smith finds in sympathy the solution to moral problems. After the publication of The Theory of Moral Sentiments Smith payed more attention to jurisprudence and political economics in his lectures. An account of these lectures by one of Smith’s students around 1763 was edited by E. Cannan in 1896. In 1763 Smith was hired as tutor to the young Duke of Buccleuch. During the next years (1764-1766) Smith travelled with his pupil to Switzerland and France, where he met many intellec tual leaders as Voltaire, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Turgot, D’Alembert, Andrà © Morellet, Helvà ©tius, and Francois Quesnay, who was the head of the Physiocratic school whose works influenced Smith. Later on he also met Benjamà ­n Franklin.2 Smith retired from his post as tutor of the Duke of Buccleuch thanks to the life pension that he earned through that tutorship, and he returned home to Kirkcaldy, where he dedicated to the task of writing his most important work, The Wealth of Nations, which was published in 1776, the same year of the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America. His close friend Hume also died in that