Review an Enlightened Friendship Between â€ëœthe Infidel and the Professorã¢â‚¬â„¢

David Hume and Adam Smith were leading thinkers of the 1700s, and their ideas continue to influence us to this day. Hume is considered ane of the about of import philosophers in English, and his work was a precursor of modernistic cerebral science, while Smith, the author of The Wealth of Nations, is often chosen the begetter of capitalism. They were very unlike sorts of people, though: Smith was an upright establishment figure, while Hume held radical ideas, non to the lowest degree his open skepticism about religion.

They were also close friends for more than than xx-five years, and their friendship was a source of force to both. Dennis Rasmussen, an associate professor of political science, had written about both men in two previous books, and was quite surprised when he realized no one had chronicled their indelible friendship.

With his new book, The Infidel and the Professor: David Hume, Adam Smith, and the Friendship that Shaped Modern Thought (Princeton University Press), he sets out to fill that gap with an animated retelling of the 2 men'south lives and the times in which they lived, the height of the Scottish Enlightenment. Their circle included many influential figures in the world of ideas—even Jean-Jacques Rousseau makes an appearance. The friendship was built on mutual admiration. After Hume died, in 1776, Smith wrote that he approached "every bit nearly to the thought of a perfectly wise and virtuous human, every bit possibly the nature of human being frailty volition permit."

Having enjoyed reading books that combine biography with ideas and philosophy, "peculiarly those that do information technology in an accessible and entertaining way, I thought I'd effort my hand at it," said Rasmussen, who teaches political theory. Tufts Now recently spoke with him virtually The Infidel and the Professor, which a New York Times reviewer chosen "touching and illuminating."

Tufts At present : Why is David Hume such a pivotal effigy in the history of philosophy?

Dennis Rasmussen: Hume is widely regarded as maybe the greatest philosopher to write in the English—certainly, with Thomas Hobbes, one of the ii most important thinkers. He'southward an interesting figure in that he is a really harsh critic of religion, just also of the powers and capacity of human reason. He'south seen every bit a skeptic and empiricist, and puts a lot of weight on the importance of intellectual humility, of knowing the limits of the man mind.

That besides goes to the limits of what we can know about god and the afterlife. So in some respects, his is a very modern world view; I think that helps account for his popularity among philosophers today.

Was he an atheist?

I wouldn't quite say he was an atheist. He was enough of a skeptic to say we don't know that there's no god. We shouldn't exist so sure of that. He is more than of what we call agnostic, though in his time he was called a skeptic, and I think that'southward a better term.

There were times when he was really outspoken, perhaps most famously in his deathbed interview with James Boswell, when he said quite harsh things about religion and the religious—not but that he didn't believe, but, as Boswell reported, that "when he heard a homo was religious, he concluded he was a rascal, though he had known some instances of very adept men being religious."

Adam Smith gets called the begetter of capitalism, but yous point out his thought was much more nuanced.

Nosotros recall of Smith as an economist who theorized the invisible mitt and championed free trade; he was in fact a professor of moral philosophy. His first volume, which he always thought was the more than important book, was called The Theory of Moral Sentiments, which focuses on moral philosophy. His second book The Wealth of Nations focuses on political economy.

He's a far more complex effigy than he's oft given credit for. He doesn't at all hesitate to admit the potential dangers and drawbacks of commercial society, with respect to morality, happiness, inequality—a number of things.

I was surprised to read that, different his reputation equally a cheerleader for capitalism, Smith said it'south the best matter going, but it'southward got problems.

Very much and then. Karl Marx loved to quote Smith, because Smith says some harsh things about capitalism. Of form, Marx couched it as, "even Adam Smith realizes how horrible capitalism is . . ."—that'due south non Smith'due south view. He thinks that the benefits of commercial lodge—liberty, security, prosperity, and the rest—far outweigh its disadvantages. But there are disadvantages.

What drew Hume and Smith together?

Information technology's hard to say. Smith was a dozen years younger than Hume. After Smith finished his schooling at Oxford, he was delivering some public lectures in Edinburgh, and that's almost certainly when they first met. Nosotros unfortunately have no record of their start meeting.

A year or two later, Smith moved to Glasgow to become a professor there, and Hume was even so based in Edinburgh. But somehow the friendship flourished; we tin tell from the few messages that nosotros have that the relationship becomes ever warmer over the years. I think the remarkable thing was the depth of the friendship and the interesting similarities and divergences between their thought, and just that they are both so famous today.

How did the friendship touch on each human'due south work?

The friendship influenced Smith'due south work much more Hume's. Hume had written near all of his philosophical works before Smith even began to publish his. Just nearly everything Smith wrote shows unmistakable signs of Hume'south influence. The similarities in their outlooks are broad and deep, only Smith almost never simply adopted Hume's views wholesale. On the opposite, he modified almost everything he touched.

Mayhap surprisingly, given their current reputations—with Hume bandage as the bully philosopher and Smith the groovy economist—I argue that when information technology comes to moral philosophy Smith'southward views are generally more nuanced and sophisticated than Hume's. On the other hand, Hume argued for free merchandise and stressed the moral, social, and political benefits of commerce several decades beforeThe Wealth of Nationsappeared.

If someone wanted to go back and read Hume or Smith in the original, what would you lot recommend?

One of the best places to kickoff would be the two things that I include in the appendix to the book: Hume'southward autobiography, "My Ain Life," and Smith's annex to information technology, the Letter to Strahan, which completes Hume'southward life, as it were.

Taylor McNeil can be reached at taylor.mcneil@tufts.edu .

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Source: https://now.tufts.edu/2018/01/16/enlightened-friendship

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