Via my favorite expat blog “View from the Back“:
We’ve covered the oldest chocolate shop in Paris, now what about its oldest hotel? France, and more particularly Paris, is the flagship destination …
The Oldest Hotel in Paris: Hôtel Chopin
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):
Continue reading
Below the fold is the full Table of Contents of the revised and corrected draft of “DIE ADAM SMITH PROBLEME“:
Continue readingVia, where else?, Wikipedia: “Hexapawn is a deterministic two-player game invented by Martin Gardner. It is played on a rectangular board of variable size, for example on a 3×3 board or on a regular chessboard. On a board of size n×m, each player begins with m pawns, one for each square in the row closest to them. The goal of each player is to either advance a pawn to the opposite end of the board or leave the other player with no legal moves, either by stalemate or by having all of their pieces captured.”
I agree with loudmouth sports commentator Stephen A. Smith that the NBA All-Star game is a complete embarrassment, but what is to be done? Short of cancelling this joke of a game altogether, why not deduct points when a player misses a shot? This rule-change will not only keep the score low; it will also give players an incentive to play defense.
Note: TMS refers to Smith’s Theory of Moral Sentiments, while WN = The Wealth of Nations
I mentioned in a previous post (see here or below) that typing “another Adam Smith problem” into Google Scholar’s search engine generates nine results: one book, two book chapters, and six research articles. At the time, however, I was only able to comment on seven of those nine works because two were gated: a 2006 paper by Catherine Labio (“The solution is in the text: a survey of the recent literary turn in Adam Smith studies”) and a 2001 book chapter by Amos Witztum (“Division of labour, wealth, and behaviour in Adam Smith”). I have since obtained copies of both works and will share my thoughts below:
Catherine Labio’s Adam Smith Problem
For Labio (2006, p. 153), “The question is no longer: how does one reconcile the potentially mutually exclusive ethical frameworks of two separate works by the same author [i.e. the notorious Adam Smith Problem of old], but how does one account for the internal contradictions at the heart of these respective works [TMS and WN] and of Smith’s oeuvre as a whole?” So, what are these potential “internal contradictions” in Smith’s works? Labio lists five of them:
Amos Witztum’s Adam Smith Problem
For his part, Witztum’s work drills down on the first of Labio’s Smithian internal contradictions:
In what seems to be yet another Adam Smith problem, [Smith scholar E. G. West] argues that there is an apparent contradiction between Book 1 and Book 5 of the Wealth of Nations … with regard to the effects of the division of labour on the productivity of workers and the life of the working classes. While in Book 1 the division of labour appears as one of the major causes for the “improvement in the productive powers of labour”, in Book 5 it is this very same division of labour which gives rise to “stupidity and ignorance”, not at all conducive to dexterity and ingenuity.
Witztum 2001, p. 137, citing West 1964, 1996
Others, however, “dispute the existence of any such problem” (Witztum 2001, p. 137, citing Rosenberg 1965, 1990). So, is there a contradiction between Books 1 and 5 of WN, and if so, is the division of labor ‘good’ or ‘bad’ on balance? Suffice it to say that both Labio and Witztum give us a lot to think about and plenty to read, for in addition to the two scholarly works by E. G. West, Witztum’s bibliography includes five scholarly papers (counting two self-citations), two books, as well as four references to Smith (see Witztum 2001, p. 152), while Labio’s list of possible Smithian “internal contraditions” refers to nine more works (aside from West’s), including one self-citation (see Labio 2006, p. 153).
Based on my own work as well as that of my co-author Salim Rashid, I have made many substantial revisions and corrections to “DIE ADAM SMITH PROBLEME” and have posted an updated draft on SSRN (see here) in preparation for my upcoming talk at the next meeting of the International Adam Smith Society (IASS) at Waseda University in Tokyo next week.
I have said it before, and I will say it again: there is more than one “Das Adam Smith Problem”! By way of example, below are just a small sample of some of the many unresolved Adam Smith mysteries that I have featured on this blog and that I will be presenting in one week’s time (11 March 2024) at the next meeting of the International Adam Smith Society, which will take place at Waseda University in Tokyo:
DAS ‘THEORY OF MORAL SENTIMENTS’ PROBLEM
A number of scholars have pointed out a wide variety of problems with Adam Smith’s first great work, The Theory of Moral Sentiments (TMS). See, for example, my 23 April 2023 blog post: Dissing Smith’s “Theory of Moral Sentiments” (with apologies to Dan Klein!), where I describe Walter Bagehot’s devastating takedown of TMS. But the one ‘TMS mystery’ that stands out the most to me is this: why did Adam Smith write TMS in the first place: to change the world or just describe it? (That is, how should TMS be read, as a normative work or a descriptive one?)
DAS ‘WEALTH OF NATIONS’ PROBLEM
Among the many mysteries surrounding Smith’s Wealth of Nations (WN), its origins and its originality are still in dispute: when did Smith start writing his political economy masterpiece, and how much of WN was plagiarized? See, by way of example, both of my 24 Feb. 2024 blog posts, Was Adam Smith a plagiarist? and Another Adam Smith mystery: Toulouse, 1764.
TMS UND WN PROBLEME
An additional set of “Adam Smith Problems” are common to both TMS and WN; namely, how much of either work should be read as a response to Rousseau? More generally, what did Smith think of Rousseau, what influence did this reclusive Swiss author have on Smith’s intellectual development, and did the two great Enlightenment thinkers ever meet? See, for instance, my 26 Feb. 2024 blog post on Paul Sagar’s Adam Smith Problem.
PROBLEME ÜBER RELIGION UND POLITIK (PROBELMS ABOUT SMITH’S VIEWS ON RELIGION AND POLITICS)
Was Smith a pious Presbyterian, a closet Atheist, or something in-between? Also, if Smith were alive today, would his politics be ‘left’ or ‘right’ or ‘centrist’? (In addition to these “first-order” questions, I would add a “second-order” one: who cares?)
DAS PROBLEM DES VERMÄCHTNISSES VON ADAM SMITH (THE PROBLEM OF ADAM SMITH’S LEGACY)
Perhaps the most important–and most contentious–Adam Smith problem is this: how does Smith deserve to be remembered, and how would Smith himself have answered this question? See, for example, my 28 Feb. 2024 blog post on Adam Smith, poet?
ADDITIONAL ADAM SMITH PROBLEMS
See my 15 April 2023 blog post on Die Adam Smith Probleme: a comprehensive recap as well as my 27 Feb. 2024 post on Google Scholar’s contribution to *Die Adam Smith Probleme*.
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