CONFERENCE

The Philosophy of Adam Smith:

A conference to commemorate the 250th anniversary of 
The Theory of Moral Sentiments

January 6-8, 2009
Balliol College, Oxford

Organised by the International Adam Smith Society and The Adam Smith Review

Although Adam Smith is better known now for his economics, in his own time it was his first book, The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759), which established his reputation. Just as scholarly work on Smith has challenged the free market appropriation of Smith’s Wealth of Nations, so it has also come to appreciate the importance of Smith’s moral philosophy for his overall intellectual project. This conference, to be held at the college Smith himself attended from 1740-46, and at the beginning of the year marking the 250th anniversary of the publication of The Theory of Moral Sentiments, will provide an opportunity to re-evaluate the significance of Smith’s moral philosophy and moral psychology, the relationship between them and his other writings on economics, politics, jurisprudence, history, and rhetoric and belles lettres, and the relevance of his thought to current research in these areas.

Plenary speakers will include:
Stephen Darwall (Professor of Philosophy, University of Michigan), "Smith on Honor and Respect"
Charles Griswold (Professor of Philosophy, Boston University), "Tales of the Self: Adam Smith's Reply to Rousseau"
Knud Haakonssen (Professor of Intellectual History, University of Sussex), "Smith and Epicureanism"
David Raphael (Professor Emeritus of Philosophy, Imperial College), "The Virtue of TMS 1759"
Emma Rothschild (Fellow, King’s College Cambridge; Visiting Professor of History, Harvard),  "TMS and the Inner Life"
Geoffrey Sayre-McCord (Professor of Philosophy, University of North Carolina),  "Is the Impartial Spectator's Vision 20/20?"

Other speakers:
Richard van den Berg, "PL Roederer's Reading of Smith's System of Sympathy"
Lauren Brubaker, "Smith's moderate response to Rousseau"
Richard Boyd, "Adam Smith and Nationalism
Emily Brady, "Nature, Aesthetic Judgment, and Sympathetic Imagination"
Matthew Braham, "Smithian Social Justice"
Toni Vogel Carey, "Accounting for Moral as for Natural Things"
Maria Alejandra Carrasco, "The forked meaning of self-command"
Sergio Cremaschi, "Adam Smith's post-scepticism and his unwritten doctrines"
Remy Debes, "The Value of Persons in Smith's Moral Philosophy"
Patricio Fernandez and Nicholas Teh, "Smith and McDowell on Moral Objectivity"
Tom Ford, "Reification and Adam Smith's 'as it were'"
Fonna Forman-Barzilai, "The 'humbler department': Smith's anti-cosmopolitanism"
Michael Frazer, "At the Heretic's Deathbed"
Christel Fricke, "Moral Norms: Conventions or Universal Principles?"
Patrick Frierson, "Smithian Intrinsic Value"
Ryan Hanley, "Smith's Skepticism"
Eugene Heath, "Moral Evolution and the Invisible Hand"
Neven Leddy, "Smith's TMS in 1759, 1790 and 1976"
Thornton Lockwood, "Moral Education in Aristotle and Adam Smith"
John McHugh, "Hume and Smith: Sympathy, Utility and the Sociality of the Self"
Alice MacLachlan, "Injustice, Entitlement, and Smithean Resentment"
James McClellan and Karin Brown, "Sophie de Grouchy's Translation of TMS"
Alejandra Mancilla, "The attentive and well-informed spectator"
Robert Mankin, "Smith and the Art of Dying"
Bence Nanay, "Adam Smith on Sympathy and Imagining from the Inside"
Angelica Nuzzo, "The Standpoint of Morality in Adam Smith and Hegel"
Paul Oslington, "Newton and Smith on Divine Action"
Michael Pritchard, "Taming Resentment"
Jonathan Rick, "The Impartial Spectator's Amour-Propre"
Alvaro Santana-Alcuña, "Outside the Self"
Roberto Scazzieri, "Social Mirrors: Rationality under Relational Constraints""
Eric Schliesser, "Adam Smith's Engagement with Plato's Laws"
Arby Siraki, "Adam Smith's theory of tragedy"
Spiros Tegos, "The Problem of Authority in Adam Smith"
Andrew Terjesen, "Imagination or Correspondence in Smith's 'Sympathy'"
Robert Urquhart, "Adam Smith's Problems: Tensions within TMS and WN"
Carola Freilin von Villiez, ""Dimensions of Impartiality"
Gloria Vivenza, "Cicero and Seneca in TMS"
Christopher Williams, "Taste and Testimony in Adam Smith"
Jeffrey Young, "Justice, Property, and Markets"

Conference programme and registration details to follow

Publication
A selection of conference papers will be published in a special commemorative volume of The Adam Smith Review (Routledge), entitled ‘The Philosophy of Adam Smith’, edited by Vivienne Brown and Samuel Fleischacker, scheduled publication Autumn 2009.

Conference fees
It is hoped that funding for the conference will allow discounted rates for scholars from low income countries and for students.