[Book and World]
Adam Smith Biography by Ian Simpson Ross,
Statue of Adam Smith in Edinburgh, Scotland. Photo by Hankook Ilbo,
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, Where did the concept of the “invisible hand,” mentioned by Adam Smith, the “father of economics,” in Wealth of Nations, originate from?,
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, Adam Smith, who spent his university years (1737~1740) in Glasgow, Scotland, a place filled with economic vitality due to transatlantic trade, attended ethics lectures by the moral philosopher Francis Hutcheson, who highly valued Stoic philosophy. Ian Simpson Ross, who traced Smith’s writings, the Glasgow University curriculum, and Hutcheson’s lectures to write the “Adam Smith Biography”, wrote, “In the end, Smith, drawing his own understanding of the harmonious universal system based on the laws of nature from the Stoics, could imagine regulating economic activities within the framework of a market where human moral norms were established and where as if some ‘invisible hand’ was operating.”
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, Just like the famous passage of “We expect our dinner not from the benevolence of the butcher or the baker, but from their regard to their own interest,” the classic principle of laissez-faire capitalism that selfish human behaviors unintentionally promote social benefits through the “invisible hand” is rooted in the Stoics’ ideology of “harmony of nature.”
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, Written by Ross (1930~2015), who was a professor at the University of British Columbia in Canada, this biography meticulously traces how Smith’s profound ideas contained in his two great works, “The Theory of Moral Sentiments” and “Wealth of Nations,” were formed. While there are numerous biographies and commentaries on Smith that oppose the planned economy of 20th-century socialism, this book stands out for its precise analysis of how his ideas were conceived, developed, and perfected throughout his lifetime. For example, through this book, one can learn that even before Smith’s metaphor of the “invisible hand,” Mirabeau, one of the pupils of Kennet, a contemporary agrarianist, mentioned in his “Philosophy of Agriculture” in 1763 that “The healthy magic of a well-ordered society is not that each believes he works for himself but that they actually work for others.”
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Biography of Adam Smith by Ian Simpson Ross, translated by Cho Jae-hee, published by Gilhangari, 1,236 pages, 54,000 won,
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, Furthermore, the biography delves meticulously into the interactions with numerous enlightenment thinkers who dominated 18th-century thought such as David Hume, Voltaire, Rousseau, and others, as well as the profound impact of events like the American independence and the French Revolution on the various editions of “The Theory of Moral Sentiments” and “Wealth of Nations.” By examining the various intellectual influences on Smith, it is evident that “The Theory of Moral Sentiments” and “Wealth of Nations” overturned feudal orders and paved the way for political revolutions represented by the industrial revolution and the French Revolution in the 18th century enlightenment thought. The extensive 1,236-page biography is overwhelming in terms of meticulously analyzing how Smith’s philosophy was conceived, developed, and completed throughout his entire life. However, it might be a drawback for Adam Smith beginners as the readability as a general education book is lacking. It is also regrettable that there is no detailed discussion on the intellectual history of “labor theory of value,” another pillar of the “Wealth of Nations’.”