News & Events
Smith in the News
The Panmure House Project continues to work on turning Smith's home in Edinburgh into a center for scholarship. Smith's grave, on the other hand, along with Hume's and Robert Stevenson's, has been neglected and the headstone is said to be deteriorating: see story in The Scottish Courier.
Upcoming Conferences
Adam Smith and the Enlightenment
18-20 December, 2009
Athens, Greece
In recognition of the importance of Adam Smith's work, the breadth of his research interests, and his contribution to the development of the social sciences and philosophy in particular, the Conference will be organized along four main themes:
- Smith's contribution to the Scottish Enlightenment
- Smith and other British and European 18th century intellectuals
- Smith and Philosophy; the Social Sciences; Literature and the Arts
- Smith's Reception in Europe, and in Greece in particular
Anyone interested in presenting a paper should submit an abstract of no more than 500 words, indicating which of the four themes best accommodates its subject-matter, to Athanasia Glycofrydi-Leontsini or Dionysius Drossos before 1 July 2009.
IASS Events
Paul Guyer (Philosophy, University of Pennsylvania) will speak on "Adam Smith's Original Theory of Imitation" at the next meeting of IASS, held in conjunction with the Central Division meeting of the American Philosophical Association in Chicago, on February 18, 2010. The commentator on his paper will be James Harris (Philosophy, University of St. Andrews).
IASS will also co-sponsor a conference with the Eighteenth Century Scottish Studies Society (ECSS):
Thomas Reid, William Cullen and Adam Smith:
The Science of Mind and Body in the Scottish Enlightenment
24-27 June, 2010
Princeton Theological Seminary, Princeton, New Jersey
Commemorating the tercentenary of the births of the philosopher Thomas Reid (1710–1796) and the physician William Cullen (1710–1790), this conference invites proposals for 20-minute papers on Reid and Cullen themselves, as well as their contemporary Adam Smith (1723–1790), and on the interplay of philosophy, medicine, science, religion, literature, and political economy during the Scottish Enlightenment. Papers on other aspects of eighteenth-century Scottish thought and culture are also welcome, as are papers on connections between Scotland and the Princeton–Philadelphia region. Plenary addresses will be delivered by Aaron Garrett, Boston University, on “Thomas Reid as Historian of Philosophy” and Guenter B. Risse, Emeritus, University of California San Francisco on “William Cullen and His Edinburgh Medical World.”
Email or fax a title and one-page description of your proposed panel or proposed 20-minute paper, along with a one-page cv, by 1 November 2009 to: Richard B. Sher, Executive Secretary, ECSSS, New Jersey Institute of Technology, University Heights, Newark, NJ 07102-1982 USA; Fax: 973-762-3039 E-mail: sher@njit.edu
IASS News
The International Adam Smith Society, together with the Adam Smith Review, organized a conference at Balliol College, Oxford, this past January, to mark the 250th anniversary of The Theory of Moral Sentiments. Titled The Philosophy of Adam Smith, the conference featured plenary addresses by Stephen Darwall, Charles Griswold, David Raphael, Emma Rothschild, and Geoffrey Sayre-McCord, along with sessions at which almost 40 presentations were given. Topics ranged from Smith on the paradox of tragedy to Smith's influence on Hegel, with papers on a wide variety of topics in politics, moral psychology, theology, and history as well. A volume of selected papers will be published by Routledge.