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The problems and promise of commerci...

Duke University.

The problems and promise of commercial society: Adam Smith's response to Rousseau (Jean-Jacques Rousseau).

Record Type:	Electronic resources : Monograph/item
Title/Author:	The problems and promise of commercial society: Adam Smith's response to Rousseau (Jean-Jacques Rousseau).
Author:	Rasmussen, Dennis Carl.
Description:	257 p.
Notes:	Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 66-06, Section: A, page: 2372.
Notes:	Supervisor: Ruth W. Grant.
Contained By:	Dissertation Abstracts International66-06A.
Subject:	Political Science, General.
Online resource:	http://pqdd.sinica.edu.tw/twdaoapp/servlet/advanced?query=3179234
ISBN:	9780542191954

The problems and promise of commercial society: Adam Smith's response to Rousseau (Jean-Jacques Rousseau).
Rasmussen, Dennis Carl.

The problems and promise of commercial society: Adam Smith's response to Rousseau (Jean-Jacques Rousseau). - 257 p.

Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 66-06, Section: A, page: 2372.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Duke University, 2005.

Adam Smith and Jean-Jacques Rousseau seem, at first glance, to be complete opposites, with the former being commercial society's first great defender and the latter its first great critic. Yet I show, in the most extensive comparison of these two thinkers to date, not only that Rousseau's writings had a significant influence on Smith's thought, but also that Smith shared many of Rousseau's severe misgivings about commercial society. Smith wrote a review of Rousseau's Discourse on Inequality early in his career that highlights some of Rousseau's most fundamental critiques of commercial society, and in his later writings Smith concedes a measure of validity to each of these critiques. Smith's sympathy with Rousseau's arguments helps to draw attention to the question that stands at the heart of his thought: if he recognized the same shortcomings of commercial society that Rousseau did, then why did he defend it? I argue that the ultimate foundations of Smith's defense of commercial society can be found in his account of the moral and political drawbacks of pre-commercial societies: while he recognizes the deeply problematic character of commercial society, he maintains that it still constitutes a definite improvement over the poverty, dependence, and insecurity that characterized most previous ages. Smith's view, then, is far from the triumphal one it is often thought to be: he recognizes the great costs of commercial society but concludes that it is preferable, on balance, to other forms of society, since it provides the best chance for the most people to lead a decent life.

ISBN: 9780542191954Subjects--Topical Terms:

212408
Political Science, General.

The problems and promise of commercial society: Adam Smith's response to Rousseau (Jean-Jacques Rousseau).
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502 $a Thesis (Ph.D.)--Duke University, 2005.
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