Below the fold is a summary in table form — revised and corrected on 8 March 2024 — of my work-in-progress DIE ADAM SMITH PROBLEME” (with Salim Rashid):
| COLUMN A Brief description of the “Adam Smith problem” | COLUMN B Summary of the unsolved mystery | COLUMN C Some relevant literature regarding the problem |
| Some Open Questions about Smith’s Two Great Works | ||
| TM-Probleme | Who, or what, is the impartial spectator? | Hanley 2006; Klein 2016; Klein, Matson, & Doran 2018 |
| WN-Probleme | (i) When did Smith begin writing WN? (ii) How much of WN is plagiarized? (iii) Is the division of labor, on balance, good or bad? (iv) Is the conspiracy of the merchants soluble? (v) Where, pray tell, are the entrepreneurs? (vi) What is Smith’s solution to ‘Quesnay’s contradiction’? (vii) Was Smith serious when he proposed a union between Britain and her 13 colonies? (viii) How much influence did WN really have on British policy? (Is Smith’s reputation as an economist deserved?) | (i) Keynes 1938 (ii) Rashid 1990 (iii) West 1996 (iv) Sagar 2022 (v) Michael 2007 (vi) Friedman 1962 (vii) Klein 2023 (viii) Rashid 1998 |
| TMS und WN Probleme | What influence did Rousseau have on Smith? | Sagar 2022 |
| Young Adam Smith Mysteries | ||
| Decision to Leave Oxford | Why did Smith ditch Oxford? | Ortmann 2023 |
| Smith’s Mental Health | Did Smith have Asperger’s? | Craig 2013 |
| Das David Hume Problem | Was Smith really “severely reprimanded” by his Oxford superiors for reading the work of David Hume? | Guerra-Pujol, forthcoming-B |
| Das Edinburgh Problem | Among other things, what was the subject matter of the public lectures Smith gave in Edinburgh from 1748 to 1751? | Rashid 2023 |
| Das Liebesproblem (Smith’s Love Life) | Did Smith have a romantic attachment; and if so, who was she? | Guerra-Pujol 2021 |
| Some Glasgow Enigmas | ||
| Das Adam-Smith-Professor-Problem | Among other things, was Smith really as absent-minded as his biographers claim? | Rashid 2023 |
| Miscellaneous Mysteries | ||
| Das Adam-Smith-Religionproblem | What are Adam Smith’s true views re: religion? Did his views change over time? | Kennedy 2011 |
| Smith’s Grand Tour Years | Why did Adam Smith resign his prestigious Glasgow professorship? | Alcouffe & Massot-Bordenave 2020 |
| French Connections? | Are Madame Nicole and Madam Nicol the same person, and did Smith have a love affair with either one? | Guerra-Pujol 2021 |
| Das Horace Walpole Problem | What did Smith think of English aesthete Horace Walpole, and what was the nature of their relationship? | Guerra-Pujol 2023a |
| Dalkeith House Enigma | How frequently did Adam Smith visit Dalkeith House, and what was the purpose of these visits? | Bonnyman 2014 |
| Das Adam-Smith-Autorproblem | Why did Smith find the actual act of writing so difficult? | Rashid 2023 |
| Smith’s Last Years | ||
| Das Bürokratproblem (Smith as Customs Commissioner) | Why did Adam Smith agree to become a Commissioner of Customs? | Anderson, Shugart II, & Tollison 1995; Guerra-Pujol 2023b |
| Das Problem der Verlorenen Bucher (The Lost Book Problem) | Why did Adam Smith never finish his promised book on law and government, and had he completed this book, what new contributions to legal theory would he have made? | Griswold 2006; Malloy 2021; Haakonssen 1989 |
| Smith’s Literary Bonfire | Why did Adam Smith want his papers to be burned upon his death? | Guerra-Pujol 2021 |
| Counterfactual Adam Smith Problems | ||
| Das Politikproblem | Are Smith politics right, left, or centrist? | Craig 2013 |
| Das UBI Problem (Income Redistribution) | Would Smith favor income redistribution? UBI? | Hauck, forthcoming; Paganelli 2015; Salter 2012 |
| Concluding Question | ||
| Das Legacy-Problem | How should Smith be remembered? What is his legacy? | |
prior probability 