- [UNTITLED]
- Preface
- Abbreviations
- List of Contributors
- Introduction: Adam Smith: An Outline of Life, Times, and Legacy
- Adam Smith: A Biographer's Reflections
- Newtonianism and Adam Smith
- Adam Smith and Rousseau: Enlightenment and Counter-Enlightenment
- Adam Smith and Early-Modern Thought
- Adam Smith's Aesthetics
- Adam Smith As Critic
- Adam Smith: History and Poetics
- Adam Smith On Language and Rhetoric: The Ethics of Style, Character, and Propriety
- Adam Smith: The Sympathetic Process and The Origin and Function Of Conscience
- Adam Smith and The Limits of Sympathy
- Adam Smith and Virtue
- Adam Smith and Self-Interest
- Adam Smith on Labour and Capital
- Adam Smith on Value and Prices
- Adam Smith on Money, Banking, and the Price Level
- Commercial Relations: From Adam Smith to Field Experiments
- Adam Smith: Theorist of Corruption
- Adam Smith and the State: Language and Reform
- Adam Smith and the Law
- Adam Smith on Empire and International Relations
- Adam Smith on Civility and Civil Society
- Adam Smith on Religion
- Adam Smith on Equality
- Adam Smith on Women
- Adam Smith and Marx
- Adam Smith and the New Right
- Adam Smith: Methods, Morals, and Markets
- The Contemporary Relevance of Adam Smith
- Index Introductory Note
Abstract and Keywords
This chapter outlines Marx’s general attitude towards Smith. It argues that Marx was a close reader of and that he generally admired Smith’s work. The chapter outlines how Marx criticizes various aspects of Smith’s thought and then develops them as a part of his own theory. Topics covered include value theory and the development of money and capital. The chapter then moves on to discuss their views of the development of character and argues that their positions on both the state and historical change are also surprisingly similar. Their main difference is that Smith largely looks backward, sees that things are better than they were, and offers various reforms to improve society. Marx looks largely to the future, thinks that the future could be so much better than the present, and argues for a communist revolution.
Keywords: Adam Smith, Marx, history, capitalism, markets
Spencer J. Pack is Professor of Economics at Connecticut College, New London, Connecticut, USA. He is the author of Reconstructing Marxian Economics: Marx Based Upon a Sraffian Commodity Theory of Value (Praeger 1985); Capitalism as a Moral System: Adam Smith's Critique of the Free Market Economy (Elgar 1991); Aristotle, Adam Smith and Karl Marx: On Some Fundamental Issues in 21st Century Political Economy (Elgar 2010); and various articles in the History of Economic Thought.
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- [UNTITLED]
- Preface
- Abbreviations
- List of Contributors
- Introduction: Adam Smith: An Outline of Life, Times, and Legacy
- Adam Smith: A Biographer's Reflections
- Newtonianism and Adam Smith
- Adam Smith and Rousseau: Enlightenment and Counter-Enlightenment
- Adam Smith and Early-Modern Thought
- Adam Smith's Aesthetics
- Adam Smith As Critic
- Adam Smith: History and Poetics
- Adam Smith On Language and Rhetoric: The Ethics of Style, Character, and Propriety
- Adam Smith: The Sympathetic Process and The Origin and Function Of Conscience
- Adam Smith and The Limits of Sympathy
- Adam Smith and Virtue
- Adam Smith and Self-Interest
- Adam Smith on Labour and Capital
- Adam Smith on Value and Prices
- Adam Smith on Money, Banking, and the Price Level
- Commercial Relations: From Adam Smith to Field Experiments
- Adam Smith: Theorist of Corruption
- Adam Smith and the State: Language and Reform
- Adam Smith and the Law
- Adam Smith on Empire and International Relations
- Adam Smith on Civility and Civil Society
- Adam Smith on Religion
- Adam Smith on Equality
- Adam Smith on Women
- Adam Smith and Marx
- Adam Smith and the New Right
- Adam Smith: Methods, Morals, and Markets
- The Contemporary Relevance of Adam Smith
- Index Introductory Note