Adam Smith and the Moral Dimensions of Economic Thought workshop on Oct. 30

• Date: Monday, Oct. 30
• Time: 11 a.m.
• Location: Aderhold Hall Room 308
• Speaker: James Conroy, professor of religious and philosophical education, University of Glasgow

“Wealth of Nations” (1776) has proven to be a classic of the developing field of economic thought, and Adam Smith’s investigation into Homo economicus remains a starting point for subsequent investigations of the behavior of human beings in economic and political contexts. As a moral philosopher, questions of economic and social justice were never far from Smith’s mind, and educational considerations would play a key role in his thinking on these issues.

Connecting his “Wealth of Nations” and his earlier “The Theory of Moral Sentiments” (1759) is a concern for moral education, together with a concern for religion and justice. Smith argues that economics can be assessed in moral terms: ‘economic policy is bad policy if it has morally unacceptable consequences’ (A. Broadie, A History of Scottish Philosophy, (EUP 2009), p199). One unacceptable consequence of the division of labor is the potential moral and spiritual damage it will do to people in the performance of endlessly repetitive microtasks. To ameliorate this, Smith proposed that, along with defense of the realm and the administration of justice, governments should support a system of schooling that protect workers’ moral lives. This workshop will explore this crucial educational dimension of Smith’s thought.