Adam Smith and Alexis de Tocqueville on the Conditions of Individual Freedom

ABSTRACT

This conference covered the views of Adam Smith and Alexis de Tocqueville on the habits of self-restraint and sympathy necessary for self-government and individual liberty.

READING LIST

From Liberty Fund

The Theory of Moral Sentiments

by By Adam Smith
Edited by D. D. Raphael and A. L. Macfie

The Theory of Moral Sentiments, Smith’s first and in his own mind most important work, outlines his view of proper conduct and the institutions and sentiments that make men virtuous. Here he develops his doctrine of the impartial spectator, whose hypothetical disinterested judgment we must use to distinguish right from…

/ Learn More

Additional Readings

Smith, Adam. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Volume I. Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 1982.

Smith, Adam. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Volume II. Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, Inc., 1982.

Tocqueville, Alexis de. Democracy in America, Volumes 1 and 2 [English Edition]. Edited by Eduardo Nolla. Translated by James T. Schleifer. Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 2012.

Tocqueville, Alexis de. Memoir on Pauperism. Edited by Gertrude Himmelfarb. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 1997.