Adam Smith

Hirst begins by exploring Smith's early life and education highlighting his studies at the University of Glasgow and Oxford where he was influenced by thinkers such as Francis Hutcheson and David Hume. Hirst carefully traces how Smith's intellectual development led to the formulation of his groundbreaking ideas on free markets division of labor and the invisible hand of the economy. He explains how Smith's The Theory of Moral Sentiments laid the ethical groundwork for his later economic theories showing that Smith's work extended beyond economics into moral philosophy. In the later chapters Hirst delves into Smith's magnum opus The Wealth of Nations analyzing its key concepts and its impact on the development of classical economics. He discusses how Smith's ideas of laissez-faire economics free trade and the self-regulating market profoundly influenced both economic thought and policy in the centuries that followed. Hirst also addresses Smith's friendships with other intellectual figures of his time and his role in shaping Enlightenment thinking.