Adam Smith at 300

About our speaker

Tony Aspromourgos is Emeritus Professor of Economics in the University of Sydney, having taught Economics at the University 1985–2021, and a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia. He has published extensively in international economic journals including the Cambridge Journal of Economics, History of Political Economy, Journal of the History of Economic Thought and Review of Political Economy. Professor Aspromourgos is also the author of The Science of Wealth: Adam Smith and the Framing of Political Economy (Routledge, 2009) and ‘Invisible Hand’, The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics (2020). He is a Member of the Editorial Boards of the European Journal of the History of Economic Thought and Journal of the History of Economic Thought.

Event details

Date: Friday 16 June 2023

Time: Adam Smith at 300 lecture 6.00pm - 7.30pm (drinks and canapes served from 5.00pm - 6.00pm in Social Sciences ground floor foyer)

Location: Social Sciences Lecture Theatre 200 (A02), Science Road, The University of Sydney, NSW, 2006.

Registration

This is a free event, however registration is essential. Please register by Monday 12 June 2023.

Who was Adam Smith?

Adam Smith (1723–1790), Scottish moral philosopher and political economist, is one of the great founding figures of the modern social sciences. Indeed, one of two principal reasons for celebrating the 300^th anniversary of his birth is that he is commonly regarded as the seminal figure in the creation of one particular social science: economics – or political economy, as it was then called. Certainly, he was a pivotal figure in the formation of the discipline and decisive in raising it to a certain level of maturity. The second principal reason for marking this tercentenary is that Smith is also a key figure in the intellectual history of liberalism, with his Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776) in particular, a canonical work in the tradition of economic and political liberalism.

The intertwining of these two dimensions, social science and politics, can lead to distortions and parodies of the man and his thought, generated in the service of latter-day ideological purposes and conflicts. Against this, the aim of this event is to recover the genuine voice and thought of the historical Adam Smith.

Enquiries

Preliminary enquiries may be directed to Associate Professor Graham White  g.white@sydney.edu.au.