“Was Adam Smith, secretly, a poet …? [T]here is another Smith, perhaps a more interesting Smith, … one we should like to know more about.” (Rashid 2023, p. 13.)

Who was Adam Smith, really? Moral philosopher, law professor, political economist, advisor to statesmen (e.g. Lord Shelburne and Minister Townshend), tourist (1764-1766), author of The Wealth of Nations (1776), and customs house official (1778-1790), Doctor Smith was and did many things. But are these various pigeonholes off the mark? Have we been getting it wrong all along? As it happens, “Young Adam Smith” by Salim Rashid (available here via SSRN) explains why Smith was, above all, a literary figure:

That Smith, in his own eyes, was not primarily an economist, or even a moral philosopher, is suggested by the fact that his first love seems always to have been literature and poetry. This alone should give us pause, because poets are typically more worldly than philosophers. This preference is clear from Smith’s library, which has more volumes on literature than any other topic….

Rashid 2023, p. 10

In other words, how did Smith see himself, especially during his formative years as student and professor? Was it not, first and foremost, as a man of letters? Professor Rashid’s beautiful paper, though still an early draft, is worth reading because it brings to our attention an often overlooked Adam Smith problem: how does Smith deserve to be remembered, and how would Smith himself have answered this question? Moreover, Rashid makes a strong case for why Smith’s love of language and les belles lettres is the golden thread that unifies the many-sidedness of Smith’s many works.

In addition to this deep Smithian self-identity problem — what I shall now call “Professor Rashid’s Adam Smith problem” — my colleague and friend — and now co-author, read on! — identifies many other poignant and “unanswered questions” about our Scottish man of letters, especially about Smith’s early life, which is why I asked Prof Rashid to co-author Die Adam Smith Probleme with me. I will survey these many additional “unanswered questions” in my next post.