亚当斯密(1723～1790年)

Smith, Adam

苏格兰社会哲学家和政治经济学家。海关官员之子，在格拉斯哥大学和牛津大学求学。在爱丁堡的一系列公开演讲（1748年起）让他与休姆建立一生的友谊，也让亚当斯密在1751年获得格拉斯哥大学聘任。在出版《道德感情理论》（1759）後，他成为未来之布克鲁奇公爵的家庭教师（1763～1766），与他一起旅居法国，并在那里亲近其他重要的思想家。1776年在工作九年之後，亚当斯密出版《国富论》，为政治经济方面最早的综合体系。他在书中论述以个人私利为本的经济体系较佳，好比由一只「看不见的手」引领，以获得最佳的好处，书中并把分工视为经济成长的首要因素。此书为当时盛行之重商主义体系的反应，站在古典经济学的开端。《国富论》立即为他赢得巨大声望，最後成为出版史上对经济影响最深远的作品。虽然常被视为资本主义的圣经，本书却严厉批判了毫无节制之自由企业与垄断的缺点。1777年亚当斯密奉派为苏格兰海关专员，1787年成为格拉斯哥大学校长。

English version：

1723～1790年

Smith, Adam

Scottish social philosopher and political economist. The son of a customs official, he studied at the Univs. of Glasgow and Oxford. A series of public lectures in Edinburgh (from 1748) led to a lifelong friendship with David Hume and to Smith's appointment to the Glasgow faculty in 1751. After publishing The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759), he became the tutor of the future Duke of Buccleuch (1763-66); with him he traveled to France, where he consorted with other eminent thinkers. In 1776, after nine years of work, Smith published An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, the first comprehensive system of political economy. In it he argued in favor of an economic system based on individual self-interest that would be led, as if by an “invisible hand,” to achieve the greatest good for all, and posited the division of labor as the chief factor in economic growth. A reaction to the system of mercantilism then current, it stands as the beginning of classical economics. The Wealth of Nations in time won him an enormous reputation, and would become virtually the most influential work on economics ever published. Though often regarded as the bible of capitalism, it is harshly critical of the shortcomings of unrestrained free enterprise and monopoly. In 1777 Smith was appointed commissioner of customs for Scotland, and in 1787 rector of the University of Glasgow.