Adam Smith

1723 – 1790

Adam Smith was a Scottish moral philosopher and economist whose two principal works, The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759) and An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776), founded the modern discipline of political economy and the analytical framework underpinning classical and contemporary economics. His arguments for the division of labor, free markets, and the productive role of self-interest reshaped Enlightenment thought, while his often-overlooked emphasis on sympathy, justice, and moral sentiment grounded those arguments in a broader ethical theory. He spent the latter part of his life as Commissioner of Customs in Edinburgh.

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