Toland and Adam Smith’s Posthumous Work

Main Article Content

Eric Schliesser

Abstract

In this paper I offer a speculative answer to the question why Adam Smith, who burned nearly all of his papers, arranged for posthumous publication for a number of his essays. I rely on a number of hints in those essays and put them in the context of eighteenth century natural philosophy. I argue that those hints trace back to John Toland and Spinozism.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Article Details

How to Cite
Schliesser, Eric. 2014. “Toland and Adam Smith’s Posthumous Work”. Diametros, no. 40 (June):115-25. https://doi.org/10.13153/diam.40.2014.632.
Section
Special Topic - The Radicalism of the Enlightenment
Author Biography

Eric Schliesser, Philosophy and Moral Sciences Ghent University

Eric SchliesserBOF Research Professor Philosophy and Moral Sciences Ghent UniversityBlandijnberg 2, Ghent, B-9000BelgiumEmail: nescio2@yahoo.com
Share |

References

Chapman [2004] – A. Chapman, England’s Leonardo: Robert Hooke and the seventeenth-century scientific revolution, CRC Press, Bristol 2004.

Cicero [1978] – Cicero, The Nature of the Gods, transl. by P. G. Walsh, Oxford University Press, Oxford 1978.

Dean [1992] – D. R. Dean, James Hutton and the history of geologyCornell University Press, Ithaca NY 1992.

Hanley [2013] – R. Hanley, “Smith and Virtue,” [in:] Ch. Berry, M. Paganelli, and C. Smith (eds.), Oxford Handbook of Adam Smith, Oxford University Press, Oxford 2013.

Hutton [1795] – J. Hutton, Theory of the Earth: With Proofs and Illustrations, vol. 1, available at: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/12861.

Kennedy [2013] – G. Kennedy, “Adam Smith on Religion,” [in:] Ch. Berry, M. Paganelli, and C. Smith (eds.), Oxford Handbook of Adam Smith, Oxford University Press, Oxford 2013.

Mizuta and Bonar [[1967] – M. Mizuta and J. Bonar, Adam Smith’s Library: A Supplement to Bonar’s Catalogue with a Checklist of the Whole Library, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1967.

Pack [2010] – S. J. Pack, Aristotle, Adam Smith and Karl Marx: On some fundamental issues in 21st century political economy, Edward Elgar Publishing, Cheltenham 2010.

Phillipson [2010] – N. Phillipson, Adam Smith: An Enlightened Life, Penguin, London 2010.

Rashid [1998] – S. Rashid, The Myth of Adam Smith, Edward Elgar Publishing, Cheltenham 1998.

Schliesser [2003] – E. Schliesser, “The obituary of a vain philosopher: Adam Smith’s reflections on Hume’s life,” Hume Studies 29 (2), 2003, pp. 327-362.

Schliesser [2006] – E. Schliesser, “Articulating practices as reasons,” Adam Smith Review 2, 2006, pp. 69-97.

Schliesser [2011] – E. Schliesser, “Reading Adam Smith after Darwin: On the evolution of propensities, institutions, and sentiments,” Journal of Economic Behaviour and Organization 77 (1), 2011, pp. 14-22.

Schliesser [2012a] – E. Schliesser, “The Newtonian reputation of Spinoza: Newton’s challenge and the Socratic problem,” [in:] A. Janiak and E. Schliesser (eds.), Interpreting Newton: critical essays, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2012, pp. 299-319.

Schliesser [2012b] – E. Schliesser, “Newton and Spinoza: on motion and matter (and God, of course),” The Southern Journal of Philosophy 50 (3), 2012, pp. 436-458.

Smith [1982a] – A. Smith, “The Theory of Moral Sentiments,” [in:] D. D. Raphael and A. L. Macfie, The Glasgow Edition of the Works and Correspondence of Adam Smith. Vol. 1, Liberty Fund, Indianapolis 1982.

Smith [1982b] – A. Smith, “Essays on Philosophical Subjects,” [in:] W. P. D. Wightman and J. C. Bryce (eds.), The Glasgow Edition of the Works and Correspondence of Adam Smith. Vol. III, Liberty Fund, Indianapolis 1982.

Smith [1984] – A. Smith, “An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations,” [in:] R. H. Campbell, A. S. Skinner, and W. B. Todd (eds.), The Glasgow Edition of the Works and Correspondence of Adam Smith. Vol. II, Liberty Fund, Indianapolis 1984.

Smith [1985] – A. Smith, “Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres,” [in:] J. C. Bryce (ed.), The Glasgow Edition of the Works and Correspondence of Adam Smith. Vol. IV, Liberty Fund, Indianapolis 1985.

Smith [1987] – E. C. Mossner and I. S. Ross (eds.), Correspondence of Adam Smith, Clarendon Press, Oxford 1987.

Tolland [1704/2013] – J. Tolland, Letters to Serena, Bernard Lintot, London 1704, available at books.google / ed. by I. Laesk, Four Courts Press, Dublin 2013.