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Armando Rodríguez Ruidíaz

After reading about the life and work of the Scottish

economist Adam Smith (1723-90), it seems inevitable to feel

overwhelmed with admiration for his contributions to human

knowledge. But if you get to know more about the details of

his personal life, it would be also inevitable to feel great

sympathy for this uncommon individual and maybe some

compassion. This great man, who belonged to the exclusive

group of creative minds that opened new paths for the

development of mankind, was also a self-absorbed

dysfunctional personality who, like the famous Dr. Faust,

enjoyed more intellectual than physical pleasures.

According to Norman Davies, as he describes in his book

Europe – A history: “He became one of the sights of

Edinburgh, where he was given to rambling the streets in a

Adam Smith trance, half-dressed and twitching all over, heatedly

debating with himself in a peculiar affected voice and

careering along with his inimitable ‘worm like’ gait.”1

Adam Smith was born in Kirkaldy, Fife, Scotland on an unknown day of the year

1723. He studied at Glasgow and Oxford and in 1751 was appointed professor of logic at

Glasgow University. In 1752, Smith was transferred to the chair of moral philosophy

where he lectured extensively on ethics, rhetoric, jurisprudence and political economy.2

During those years at Glasgow he published Theory of Moral Sentiments, often

considered as the psychological basis of The Wealth of Nations, a treatise which

represents the culmination of his studies on political economy.3

After the resignation of his professorship at Glasgow in 1763, Smith became the

tutor of the young duke of Buccleuch, traveled extensively and became acquainted with

important contemporary intellectual personalities such as Voltaire and Francois Quesnay,

the head of the Physiocratic School.4

Adam Smith returned to Kirkaldy, his birthplace, and was absorbed in the creation

of his revolutionary masterpiece The Wealth of Nations, considered by many as the first

treatise on political economy and maybe the most important on the subject to date.

2 | The extraordinary life of Adam Smith

In this extensive study on the nature of social economic development, relationships and

motivations, Smith presents the historical evolution of society as developing through five

different stages that have their triumphant climax in a system of perfect liberty, the

“laissez-faire capitalism.”5

The Wealth of Nations, as other monuments of human knowledge, represents not

only a synthesis and a reflection on the most legitimate aspirations of his particular

historical period, a revolutionary era, but also projects itself as an inspiration for future

generations. It transcends its goals as ideological manifesto against 18th

century

mercantilism, to become an emphatic call against the restraint of social and spiritual

freedom.6

The legacy of Adam Smith acquires special importance at the beginning of the

21st century; when it seems evident that the influence of his positive philosophy of

personal freedom is as applicable as ever, particularly after most of the state-controlling

socialist and communist economic systems throughout the world collapsed during the last

quarter of the 20th

Century.

While living a quiet life in Edinburgh after 1778, in a final dramatic gesture,

Smith nearly destroyed all the manuscripts of his extensive work7. He never married

during his lifetime, and always lived with his mother until the end of his days on July 17,

1790.8

Armando Rodríguez Ruidíaz | 3

References

1 - Davies, Norman. Europe – A history. Oxford University Press, 1996.

2- Faber, Digna. Biography of Adam Smith (1723-1790), for The American Revolution – an HTML

project.Wysiwyg://53/http://odur.let.rug.nl/~usa/B/asmith/adams1.htm 3 - Koeller, David W. Adam Smith writes The Wealth of Nations: 1776.

http://campus.northpark.edu/history/WebChorn/WestEurope/AdamSmith.html 4 - Faber, Digna. Biography of Adam Smith (1723-1790), for The American Revolution – an HTML

project.Wysiwyg://53/http://odur.let.rug.nl/~usa/B/asmith/adams1.htm 5- - Koeller, David W. Adam Smith writes The Wealth of Nations: 1776.

http://campus.northpark.edu/history/WebChorn/WestEurope/AdamSmith.html

6 - Landry, Peter. Adam Smith.

http://www.blupete.com/Literature/Biographies/Philosophy/Smith.htm 7 - Faber, Digna. Biography of Adam Smith (1723-1790), for The American Revolution –

an HTML project.Wysiwyg://53/http://odur.let.rug.nl/~usa/B/asmith/adams1.htm 8 - Davies, Norman. Europe – A history. Oxford University Press, 1996.

© 2013 by Armando Rodríguez. All rights reserved.