Looks at all aspects of the pivotal intellectual relationship between two key figures of the Enlightenment
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–78) and Adam Smith (1723–90) are two of the foremost thinkers of the European Enlightenment. They who made seminal contributions to moral and political philosophy and shaped some of the key concepts of modern political economy. Though we have no solid evidence that they met in person, we do know that they shared many friends and interlocutors. In particular, David Hume was Smith’s closest intellectual associate and was also the one who arranged for Rousseau’s stay in England in 1766.
This collection brings together an international and interdisciplinary group of Adam Smith and Rousseau scholars to explore the key shared concerns of these two great thinkers in politics, philosophy, economics, history and literature