Scholarly Comments on Academic Economics

Call for papers: Commentaries on Smith/Hume scholarship

EJW invites proposals for critical comments on Adam Smith and David Hume scholarship of the past 20 years, particularly their moral, political, and economic philosophizing and historiography. Authors of commented-on papers will be invited to reply. Here is an opportunity for friends to talk openly about differences in interpretation.

EJW editor Dan Klein has had the pleasure and honor of studying with doctoral students who work on Smith and Hume. Some papers by them, himself, and a few others are listed below. Several of these papers come from a Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization special issue on the liberalism and esotericism of Smith and Hume (the papers ungated are here).

Critical comments on any of the papers listed below would be especially welcome. But we will consider any Smith/Hume scholarship of the past 20 years as target of a proposal.

Please send your idea for a contribution to Jason Briggeman at jason@briggeman.org by November 30, 2021. We aim to publish the symposium in 2022.

Papers on which we especially welcome critical commentary (* denotes more likely to be found controversial or provocative):

*Asher, Kendra H. 2020. Interpretations of Hume’s Footnote on Race. Unpublished paper, SSRN. Link

Bonica, Mark J., and Daniel B. Klein. 2020. Adam Smith on Reputation, Commutative Justice, and Defamation Laws. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization. Link, Link (JEBO)

Clark, Michael J. 2020. Adam Smith as Solon: Accommodating on the Edges of Liberty, Not Abandoning It. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization. Link, Link (JEBO)

*DelliSanti, Dylan. 2020. The Dynamism of Liberalism: An Esoteric Interpretation of Adam Smith. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization. Link, Link (JEBO)

DelliSanti, Dylan. 2021 (forthcoming). Moral Innovation and the Man within the Breast. Adam Smith Review. Link

Diesel, Jonathon. 2021. Two Superiors, Two Jural Relationships in Adam Smith. Adam Smith Review 12. Link

*Diesel, Jonathon. 2020. Adam Smith on Usury: An Esoteric Reading. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization. Link, Link (JEBO)

*Drylie, Scott. 2020. Adam Smith on Schooling: A Classical Liberal Rereading. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization. Link, Link (JEBO)

*Drylie, Scott. 2020. Professional Scholarship from 1893 to 2020 on Adam Smith’s Views on School Funding: A Heterodox Examination. Econ Journal Watch 17(2): 350–391. Link

Klein, Daniel B. 2021. Commutative, Distributive, and Estimative Justice in Adam Smith. Adam Smith Review 12. Link

Klein, Daniel B., and Erik W. Matson. 2020. Mere-Liberty in David Hume. In A Companion to David Hume, ed. Moris Polanco, 125–160. Universidad Francisco Marroquin. Link

Klein, Daniel B, Erik W. Matson and Colin Doran. 2018. The Man within the Breast, the Supreme Impartial Spectator, and Other Impartial Spectators in Adam Smith’s The Theory of Moral Sentiments. History of European Ideas 44(8): 1153–1168. Link, Link (HEI)

Martin, Christopher. 2020. Adam Smith and the Poor: A Textual Analysis. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization. Link, Link (JEBO)

Martin, Christopher. 2015. Equity Besides: Adam Smith and the Utility of Poverty. Journal of the History of Economic Thought 37(4): 559–581. Link

Matson, Erik W. 2020. A Dialectical Reading of Adam Smith on Wealth and Happiness. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization. Link, Link (JEBO)

Matson, Erik W., and Colin Doran. 2017. The Elevated Imagination: Contemplation and Action in David Hume and Adam Smith. The Journal of Scottish Philosophy 15(1): 27–45. Link

*Matson, Erik W., Colin Doran, and Daniel B. Klein. 2019. Hume and Smith on Utility, Agreeableness, Propriety, and Moral Approval. History of European Ideas. Link (SSRN), Link (HEI)

Merrill, Thomas W. 2015. Hume and the Politics of Enlightenment. Cambridge University Press.

Mueller, Paul D. 2020. Adam Smith on Moral Judgment: Why People Tend to Make Better Judgments within Liberal Institutions. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization. Link, Link (JEBO)

Murphy, Jon, and Andrew Humphries. 2020. Smith’s Memory Has Misled Him? Some Curious Errors in Adam Smith’s Theory of Moral Sentiments. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization. Link, Link (JEBO)

*Robinson, John A., and J. Robert Subrick. 2020. Why Did Adam Smith Suggest a Labor Theory of Value? Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization. Link, Link (JEBO)