Adam Smith

Adam Smith (1723 - 1790) was born in 1723 in Kirkcaldy, Scotland. After receiving his elementary education at the local school, he studied at the University of Glasgow. As a student of Francis Hutcheson, who held the Chair of Moral Philosophy, he continued his studies at Balliol College, Oxford. Under the patronage of Lord Kames, he taught Rhetoric and Literature at the University of Edinburgh before being appointed to the Chair of Logic at the University of Glasgow in 1791. The following year, he assumed the Chair of Moral Philosophy at the same university. In 1759, he published "The Theory of Moral Sentiments." In 1764, he left his academic career to work as a private tutor. After a brief tour of France and Switzerland, he returned to Britain, settled in his hometown, and from 1773 in London. In 1776, he published "An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations," a work that made him famous. He eventually became Commissioner of Customs in Scotland and settled permanently in Edinburgh until his death in 1790. After his death, some of his unpublished essays were released in the volume "Essays on Philosophical Subjects," along with notes from his university lectures in the volumes "Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres" and "Lectures on Jurisprudence."