Adam Smith and Modern Economics

Reclaiming the Moral High Ground

Stephen B. Young

• Publisher: De Gruyter
• Year: 2026
• Topic: Economics
• eBook ISBN:
  9783111576008
• Subtopic: Economic Policy
• Index: Economics

For more than two centuries, economists and researchers have struggled with the conundrum of reconciling Adam Smith's views on economics and ethics. While some held that Smith's capitalism and free markets institutionalized selfishness, greed, inequality and injustice, others focused on his theory of the moral nature of all human persons and the application of conscience and self-restraint in capitalist activities.

Adam Smith and Modern Economics suggests that neither of these two conventional understandings alone is accurate and conducive to human flourishing. Smith put markets in the context of morality, observing that markets serve best when our moral sentiments are followed. In a remarkable convergence of inductive thinking, the contributors to this book set a new standard of scholarship and insight for our understanding of Adam Smith's contributions as a master of political economy, where politics brings forth decision-making about priorities and values. The contributions integrate morals, values, and the universal intangible capitals of sociality and human resourcefulness with the more materialistic side of economic activity to advocate a system seeking equilibrium. They posit that when ethics and economics are integrated, wealth can be created for the good of all.

Commemorating the 250th anniversary of Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations, this new and sympathetic understanding of Smith's intentions and accomplishment is essential reading for academics and students of economics, politicians and bureaucrats, public policy planners, social justice activists, executives, and professionals.

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Frontmatter
• Contents
• Foreword
• Introduction
• Chapter 1 The Challenge for Leaders in an Uncertain World: The Only Way Out is the Way In
• Chapter 2 Starting a Conversation with Adam Smith
• Chapter 3 Towards a Renewed European Capitalism
• Chapter 4 From the Pin-Factory to the Concert Hall
• Chapter 5 What Would Adam Smith say About Resolving Today’s Higher Education Crisis in America?
• Chapter 6 Capitalism 2.0: Sustainable Economics, Ethical Challenges for Government, Business, and Civic Leaders
• Chapter 7 An Inquiry into the Causes of Poverty
• Chapter 8 How Adam Smith Foreshadowed Modern Social Capital Theory
• Chapter 9 Capitalism at Scale
• Chapter 10 Moral Sentiments and The Wealth of Nations: A Discursive Convergence towards Moral Capitalism
• Chapter 11 Adam Smith – Fundamentalist or Optimist: Self-interest, Sympathy and a Smithian Middle Way
• Chapter 12 Between Adam Smith’s Self-Love and the Impartial Spectator: Ādamiyyah as a Moral Bridge in Human Conscience
• Chapter 13 Adam Smith, the Moral Criteria of “Self-interest” and the Universal Ethics of the Noahide Laws
• Chapter 14 Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations and Pope Francis’ Encyclical Laudato si’: Economics, Religion, Morality, Ethics, or… What?
• Chapter 15 The Buddha and Adam Smith: A Dialogue Across Time on Wealth, Happiness, and Sustainability
• Index