Adam Smith

Adam Smith was a Scottish moral philosopher and a pioneer of political economy. One of the key figures of the Scottish Enlightenment, he is the author of The Theory of Moral Sentiments and An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. The latter, usually abbreviated as The Wealth of Nations, is considered his magnum opus and the first modern work of economics. Smith studied moral philosophy at the University of Glasgow and Oxford University. After graduating he delivered a successful series of public lectures at Edinburgh, leading him to collaborate with David Hume during the Scottish Enlightenment. He obtained a professorship at Glasgow teaching moral philosophy, and during this time he published The Theory of Moral Sentiments. In his later life he travelled throughout Europe where he met other intellectual leaders of his day. He returned home and spent the next ten years writing The Wealth of Nations which was published in 1776.