Two hundred and fifty years after the publication of The Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith continues to unsettle our present. Long reduced to a theorist of laissez-faire, Smith has been reclaimed by recent scholarship as a far more demanding and troubling thinker—one deeply concerned with institutions, justice, and the moral and political conditions under which economic progress becomes possible. But what, if anything, can Smith offer for the future ? In a world marked by global inequality, ecological breakdown, and profound transformations of the global economy, can the very idea of progress still be articulated in Smithian terms ?

Presentation

Two hundred and fifty years after the publication of The Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith continues to unsettle our present. Long reduced to a theorist of laissez-faire, Smith has been reclaimed by recent scholarship as a far more demanding and troubling thinker—one deeply concerned with institutions, justice, and the moral and political conditions under which economic progress becomes possible.But what, if anything, can Smith offer for the future ? In a world marked by global inequality, ecological breakdown, and profound transformations of the global economy, can the very idea of progress still be articulated in Smithian terms ? Can commerce be disentangled from capitalism—or from imperial domination ? And can the promise of improving economic conditions be sustained within the ecological limits of the Anthropocene ?

Programme

Wednesday 10 June

3 :30 – 4 :00 Introduction : Michele Bee and Jennifer Pitts

4 :00 – 5 :30

• Paul Cheney, “Adam Smith on Equality”
• Emma Rothschild, “The Political Economy of Influence : Adam Smith and France”
• Magali Bessone, discussant

5 :30 – 6 :00 Break

6 :00 – 7 :30

• James Robinson, “Adam Smith and Africa”
• Steve Pincus, “Adam Smith, consumption, and the Great Divergence”

7 :30-8 :30 Reception/Cocktail

Keynote lecture by James Robinson (University of Chicago), Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences.

Speakers :

• Magali Bessone (Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne)
• Paul Cheney (University of Chicago)
• Steve Pincus (University of Chicago)
• Emma Rothschild (Harvard University)