Burke, Smith, and Modern Liberty
ABSTRACT
This conference focused on the similarities and differences in the understanding of Smith and Burke on civilization and morality, and the way in which these broader issues framed their approach to the most intense political issues of their day: political reform, slavery, and empire.
READING LIST
From Liberty Fund
Select Works of Edmund Burke: Reflections on the Revolution in France
by
By Edmund Burke
Compiled and with a Foreword and Notes by Francis Canavan
Originally published by Oxford University Press in the 1890s, the famed three-volume Payne edition of Select Works is universally revered by students of English history and political thought. Faithfully reproduced in each volume are E. J. Payne’s notes and introductory essays. Francis Canavan, one of the great Burke scholars of…
Select Works of Edmund Burke: Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents and The Two Speeches on America
by
By Edmund Burke
Compiled and with a Foreword and Notes by Francis Canavan
This famed Payne edition of Select Works of Edmund Burke is universally revered by students of English history and political thought.
Volume 1, Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents and The Two Speeches on America, contains Burke’s brilliant defense of the American colonists’ complaints of British policy, including…
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…
An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (vol. 1)
by
By Adam Smith
Edited by R. H. Campbell and A. S. Skinner
William B. Todd, Textual Editor
First published in 1776, the year in which the American Revolution officially began, Smith’s Wealth of Nations sparked a revolution of its own. In it Smith analyzes the major elements of political economy, from market pricing and the division of labor to monetary, tax, trade, and other government policies that…
An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (vol. 2)
by
By Adam Smith
Edited by R. H. Campbell and A. S. Skinner
William B. Todd, Textual Editor
First published in 1776, the year in which the American Revolution officially began, Smith’s Wealth of Nations sparked a revolution of its own. In it Smith analyzes the major elements of political economy, from market pricing and the division of labor to monetary, tax, trade, and other government policies that…
Essays on Philosophical Subjects
by
By Adam Smith
Edited by W. P. D. Wightman and J. C. Bryce
Reflecting Adam Smith’s wide learning and varied interests, these essays shed considerable light on his place in the Scottish Enlightenment. Included are histories of astronomy, ancient logic, and ancient physics; essays on the “imitative” arts and the affinity between music, dancing, and poetry; and a critical review of Samuel Johnson’s…
Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres
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By Adam Smith
Edited by J. C. Bryce
The “Notes of Dr. Smith’s Rhetorick Lectures,” discovered in 1958 by a University of Aberdeen professor, consists of lecture notes taken by two of Smith’s students at the University of Glasgow in 1762–1763. There are thirty lectures in the collection, all on rhetoric and the different kinds or characteristics of…
Lectures on Jurisprudence
by
By Adam Smith
Edited by R. L. Meek, D. D. Raphael, and P. G. Stein
Smith’s Lectures on Jurisprudence, originally delivered at the University of Glasgow in 1762–1763, presents his “theory of the rules by which civil government ought to be directed.” The chief purpose of government, according to Smith, is to preserve justice; and “the object of justice is security from injury.” The state…
Additional Readings
Burke, Edmund. The Portable Edmund Burke. Edited by Isaac Kramnick. New York: Penguin Books, 1999.
Burke, Edmund. The Correspondence of Edmund Burke, Vol. I, April 1744-June 1768. Edited by Thomas W. Copeland. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1958.
Burke, Edmund. Select Works of Edmund Burke, Volume 4: Miscellaneous Writings. Edited by and compiled by Francis Canavan. Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, Inc., 1999.
Burke, Edmund. Select Works of Edmund Burke, Volume 3: Letters on a Regicide Peace. Edited by E. J. Payne. Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, Inc., 1999.
Burke, Edmund. A Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and the Beautiful. Edited by Adam Phillips. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008.
Burke, Edmund. A Vindication of Natural Society. Edited by Frank N. Pagano. Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 1982.