Registration Deadline for “Smith, Ferguson, and Witherspoon at 300”

The deadline for registering for ‘Smith, Ferguson, and Witherspoon at 300’ is 9 June. After that date, there will be no guarantee that rooms in University accommodation will be available to participants. So please register as soon as possible, if you haven’t already.

Here is a link to the registration site:  https://www.eventsforce.net/standrews/184/register

You may also find the current program below:

Call for Papers: Adam Smith and the Nature of Commerce

On the occasion of Adam Smith’s Tercentenary celebrations, the Marie Curie Project ‘Rethinking Exchange’ would like to solicit papers for a session titled ‘Smith and the Nature of Commerce’ and to be organized jointly with the International Adam Smith Society (IASS) during the upcoming 2023 AISPE (Associazione Italiana per la Storia del Pensiero Economico) and SISE (Società Italiana degli Storici Economici) conference.

Before the 19th century, commerce was part of a vast debate on human nature, the foundations of sociability and society, which involved thinkers from nascent disciplines like anthropology, political science, political economy and natural history, later considered separately. Back then, commerce was not exclusively understood as an economic concept, but also as a moral and political one. It meant not only the economic exchange of goods but was rather conceived as a particular form of social interaction based on moral sentiments, as a principle of social regulation that could possibly serve as an alternative to war and political subordination. On which attributes of human nature was commerce grounded? What kind of exchange and sociability did it concern? Under which moral, social or political conditions could it become a peaceful, free and fair way of social interaction? And under which conditions could it turn into a means of alienation, social domination and corruption? These were some of the questions that thinkers from the 18th century were grappling with.

Adam Smith made an important contribution to these debates through his two main works: the Theory of Moral Sentiments and the Wealth of Nations. In these books, Smith developed his own response to challenges put forward by thinkers like Hobbes, Pufendorf, Mandeville, Hume and Rousseau regarding the nature of commerce and human sociability. But what is the meaning of his contribution? Although scholars now amply recognize there was no contradiction between his economic and moral thought, there is no consensus regarding his stance towards commerce. In Smith’s view, was commerce an expression of the moral sentiments and a means of fulfilling one’s moral needs, or did it beget inequality, corruption and social division? Was it after all an actual solution for the problem of social conflict and violence, or did it instead pose serious moral and political problems to modern societies? We can also ask ourselves: how Smith’s questions and answers are still relevant today?

The session is open to contributions by scholars and PhD students that intend to consider Smith’s thought on these and related issues in the historical and theoretical depth of the multidisciplinary debates in which he participated. It is also open to contributions that discuss Smith’s current relevance for the branches of economics, philosophy, social and political sciences that in various ways reintroduce the themes of those debates in contemporary times.

Papers may focus on, but are not limited to, the following:

  • The role of moral feelings and ideas in Smith conceptualization of economic exchange
  • The debate on human nature and Smith’s concept of self-love
  • The 17th and 18th century debate on moral and political concerns regarding commerce (e.g. corruption, inequality, social division, political and religious fanaticism, nationalism, slavery and imperialism).
  • Smith’s conception of commerce and its relation to the doctrine of reason of state.
  • Smith and the legacy of natural law tradition

Please reply with an abstract of up to 200 words to Ivan Sternick (ivanprates@cedeplar.ufmg.br) by Wednesday 31 May.

Ivan Sternick and Michele Bee

YSI History of Economic Thought One-Day Workshop

Please see the post below on an upcoming One Day Workshop during the Adam Smith Tercentenary.

The YSI History of Economic Thought working group is organizing a one-day workshop on 7th June as part of the 2023 Adam Smith tercentenary events at the University of Glasgow, UK. This is an exciting opportunity for ten young scholars working on Smith to participate in the prestigious and historic tercentenary events planned at Glasgow and discuss their work with peers and senior Smith scholars.

The theme of the workshop will be “Adam Smith at 300”. This theme has been left deliberately open-ended to allow space for the broadest range of approaches to Smith’s work, including, for example, those working on the contemporary relevance of his ideas, as well as those doing more historicist work.

If you are interested in attending the workshop, you should:

(i) be a young scholar (Master, PhD, Post-Doc);

(ii) complete this form by 3rd May.

Invited participants will receive travel stipends and enjoy free lodging during the workshop and Smith tercentenary week. We will let applicants know the outcome by 8th May.

For more information about the Workshop ysi.ineteconomics.org/project

For other Tercentenary Week events, see www.gla.ac.uk/explore/adamsmith300/events

Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions. 

Best regards,

Ana Paula Londe Silva (she/her)

Research Associate | School of Social and Political Sciences | University of Glasgow

PhD candidate | History of Economics | Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais

Registration Information for Smith, Ferguson, and Witherspoon at 300

This post contains information about registration for “Smith, Ferguson, and Witherspoon at 300”, taking place at the University of St Andrews, 18-21 July 2023.

You can register using this link: – https://www.eventsforce.net/standrews/184/register

Graduate students and scholars from the Global South are offered a 50% discount on the cost of registration. If you wish to take advantage of this discount, please register by 15 May at the latest.

Basic registration includes lunches during the conference and an opening reception on 18 July. You can also register for the conference banquet on 21 July, which will include a ceilidh (traditional Scottish dancing), and for a coach trip to Kirkcaldy and the Fife fishing village of Anstruther on the afternoon of 20 July.

You will also have the option of booking accommodation owned by the University of St. Andrews. There are other possibilities, including local hotels and bed and breakfasts. Accommodation can be in short supply in St. Andrews in the summer, so it’s advisable to make arrangements as soon as possible.

You are welcome to bring guests to the banquet (and on the trip), but note that we’re obliged to charge an extra 20% VAT on the cost.

If you have problems with registration, please write to aceteam@st-andrews.ac.uk in the first instance.

The conference team

Deadline Approaching: CFP Smith, Ferguson, and Witherspoon @ 300, St Andrews, 18-21 July, 2023

In conjunction with the Eighteenth-Century Scottish Studies Society, the Institute for the Study of Scottish Philosophy, and the International Adam Smith Society:

The Institute of Intellectual History at the University of St Andrews will host a conference to celebrate the 300th birthdays of Adam Smith, Adam Ferguson, and John Witherspoon, and also the 250th anniversary of Johnson and Boswell’s tour of the Highlands and Western Isles.

18-21 July 2023, St Andrews, Scotland

We welcome paper abstracts (400 words max) and session proposals, both on the themes of the conference, and on eighteenth-century Scottish intellectual life more generally.

We also welcome proposals for author meets critics sessions on recent or forthcoming books.

A limited amount of funding will be available for PhD students.

DEADLINE FEBRUARY 25, 2023

Workshops During the Adam Smith Tercentenary Celebration

In celebration of Adam Smith’s 300th birthday The University of Glasgow, Smith’s academic home, will be hosting a series of events the week of the 5th June 2023. In co-ordination with colleagues in Smith’s home town of Kirkcaldy and his final Edinburgh home Panmure House, we’re planning a programme of events to mark the tercentenary.

https://www.gla.ac.uk/explore/adamsmith300/events/listing/index.html/event/12700

Among the academic events are daylong workshops for academics (early career researchers and PhD students most welcome). These will take place in Glasgow on the 8th of June. The workshops will invite leading academics to reflect, discuss, and debate the relevance of Adam Smith’s works. https://www.gla.ac.uk/news/headline_900135_en.html

Those interested in participating are invited to submit proposed papers or panel topics. Full papers are not required for participation. Please make expressions of interest in participation by February 1, 2023 to Thomas.Scotto@glasgow.ac.uk

More details on events taking place throughout 2023 can be found at

https://www.gla.ac.uk/explore/adamsmith300/

Announcing the Early Scholar Fund

Smith@300: Celebrating Adam Smith as Scholar, Educator, and Citizen

Early Career Scholar Fund

As part of a major project to celebrate Adam Smith’s tercentenary The University of Glasgow, with the support of the John Templeton Foundation, announces a call for its Early Career Scholar Fund.

The Fund is intended to support the next generation of Smith scholars: PhD students, recent post-doctoral and early career academics working on Adam Smith or whose research explores ideas rooted in the Smithian tradition.

The fund will support travel and attendance at academic conferences where the scholars disseminate new research and build their academic profile.

Initial inquiries should be directed to Craig.Smith@glasgow.ac.uk.

https://www.gla.ac.uk/explore/adamsmith300/events/listing/index.html/event/12700

This project/ publication was made possible through the support of Grant 62660 from the John Templeton Foundation. The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the John Templeton Foundation.

Young Latin American Scholars Workshop on Adam Smith

Where: Universidad del Desarrollo, Santiago de Chile

When: 25 – 26 May 2023

2023 marks the 300th anniversary of Adam Smith. The International Adam Smith Society, the Hayek Program at the Mercatus Center, and the Universidad del Desarrollo would like to take the opportunity to bring together young Latin American scholars working on Adam Smith with senior scholars to workshop their papers.

For two days, young scholars will briefly present a paper that all participants will have read in advance and will receive detailed feedback followed by a general discussion on their work.

The workshop will allow us to identify and prepare papers to be presented at international conferences or submitted to scholarly journals. Senior scholars will accompany young scholars through the preparation process after the workshop.

The workshop will also promote contact and exchange between young scholars to help them build a network of people working on Smith in the region and beyond.

We welcome papers on all aspects of Adam Smith from all disciplines.

Interested young scholars (advanced undergraduate students, graduate students, and others who have received their master’s degree in the last two years or their Ph.D.s degree in the last four years—the number of years since the end of the degree can be flexible) should send an abstract of maximum 1,000 words and a short bio to latinamericansmith@gmail.com by March 1st, 2023. Successful applicants should send complete papers (8,000 – 11,000 words) by April 28, 2023.

The workshop will take place on May 25 and 26 at Universidad del Desarrollo in Santiago de Chile.

The workshop will cover reasonable transportation, lodging, and meals for all participants.

Among the senior scholars attending the workshop there will be:

Maria Alejandra Carrasco, Universidad Católica de Chile (Philosophy)
Christel Fricke, University of Oslo (Philosophy)
Alvaro Perpere-Viñuales, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Argentina (Philosophy and Economics)
Jimena Hurtado, Universidad de los Andes – Colombia (Economics)
Maria Pia Paganelli, Trinity University (Economics)
Sarah Wilford, Universidad de los Andes – Chile (Government)
Juan Pablo Couyoumdjian, Universidad del Desarrollo (Government)

We expect other senior scholars to be in the audience.

Undergraduate Adam Smith Summer School

The University of Glasgow  is launching a Adam Smith Summer School in June 2023, offering University of Glasgow undergraduate credit to study with the leading Smith scholar, Dr Craig Smith, at the University where Adam Smith was a student, professor, and rector.  Participation will entitle them to discounted tuition should they wish to pursue a Master’s at Glasgow when they graduate.  Here is more information on the class.  Note that applications open in January.