The infidel and the professor : David Hume, Adam Smith, and the friendship that shaped modern thought

The infidel and the professor David Hume, Adam Smith, and the friendship that shaped modern thought

Dennis Carl Rasmussen, 1978-

Book - 2017

"David Hume is widely regarded as the most important philosopher ever to write in English, but during his lifetime he was attacked as "the Great Infidel" for his skeptical religious views and deemed unfit to teach the young. In contrast, Adam Smith was a revered professor of moral philosophy, and is now often hailed as the founding father of capitalism. Remarkably, the two were best friends for most of their adult lives, sharing what Dennis Rasmussen calls the greatest of all philosophical friendships. The Infidel and the Professor is the first book to tell the fascinating story of the friendship of these towering Enlightenment thinkers--and how it influenced their world-changing ideas. The book follows Hume and Smith's ...relationship from their first meeting in 1749 until Hume's death in 1776. It describes how they commented on each other's writings, supported each other's careers and literary ambitions, and advised each other on personal matters, most notably after Hume's quarrel with Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Members of a vibrant intellectual scene in Enlightenment Scotland, Hume and Smith made many of the same friends (and enemies), joined the same clubs, and were interested in many of the same subjects well beyond philosophy and economics--from psychology and history to politics and Britain's conflict with the American colonies. The book reveals that Smith's private religious views were considerably closer to Hume's public ones than is usually believed. It also shows that Hume contributed more to economics--and Smith contributed more to philosophy--than is generally recognized. Vividly written, The Infidel and the Professor is a compelling account of a great friendship that had great consequences for modern thought."--Book jacket.

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Subjects
Hume, David, > 1711-1776.
Smith, Adam, > 1723-1790.
Philosophy, Modern > 18th century.
Published
Princeton, New Jersey : Princeton University Press [2017].
Language
English
Main Author
Dennis Carl Rasmussen, 1978- (author)
Physical Description
xiii, 316 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN
9780691177014
  • Illustrations
  • Preface
  • Acknowledgments
  • Introduction: Dearest Friends
  • Chapter 1. The Cheerful Skeptic (1711-1749)
  • Chapter 2. Encountering Hume (1723-1749)
  • Chapter 3. A Budding Friendship (1750-1754)
  • Chapter 4. The Historian and the Kirk (1754-1759)
  • Chapter 5. Theorizing the Moral Sentiments (1759)
  • Chapter 6. Feted in France (1759-1766)
  • Chapter 7. Quarrel with a Wild Philosopher (1766-1767)
  • Chapter 8. Mortally Sick at Sea (1767-1775)
  • Chapter 9. Inquiring into the Wealth of Nations (1776)
  • Chapter 10. Dialoguing about Natural Religion (1776)
  • Chapter 11. A Philosopher's Death (1776)
  • Chapter 12. Ten Times More Abuse (1776-1777)
  • Epilogue: Smith's Final Years in Edinburgh (1777-1790)
  • Appendix: Hume's My Own Life and Smith's Letter from Adam Smith, LL.D. to William Strahan, Esq.
  • Notes on Works Cited
  • Notes
  • Index
Review by Choice Review

This is a beautifully written and carefully researched account of the friendship between David Hume (1711-76) and Adam Smith (1723-90). Rasmussen (political science, Tufts Univ.) opens with an overview of Hume's early life and closes with a chapter on Smith's final years in Edinburgh. Also included is an appendix providing Hume's brief autobiography and Smith's famous letter to publisher William Strahan in which Smith describes Hume's last days. For the most part, milestones in Hume's life serve as organizing principles for the material, and those familiar with Hume's life will already be familiar with many of the events described. What makes this work stand out is Rasmussen's fine writing style, his thorough discussion of the interconnectedness of the thoughts and lives of Hume and Smith, and his comprehensive coverage of his subjects' many works. This book should be read by those with an interest in Hume, Smith, or the Scottish Enlightenment, and it will be enjoyed by anyone who appreciates a well-written biography. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty; general readers. --James H. Spence, Adrian College

Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Library Journal Review

David Hume and Adam Smith were best friends. Rasmussen (political science, Tufts Univ.; The Pragmatic Enlightenment) "follows the course of their friendship from their first meeting in 1749 until Hume's death" in 1776. Evidence is drawn from their extant correspondence (56 letters, mostly Hume's; Smith's first surviving letter to Hume dates to 1763), but the life and writings of both men are helpfully situated within a broader Scottish-Enlightenment context. -Rasmussen is surely right to highlight their shared skepticism about religion and Hume's pronounced impact on the younger Smith's Wealth of Nations. At times-when ascertaining the direction of intellectual influence-undue importance is placed on the publication dates of his subjects' books. After all, as his masterly account shows, the two frequently shared ideas before publishing them, including on the American crisis. (Some will also think more might have been done to show what Hume meant when he claimed to be "an American in my Principles.") The "Hume-Rousseau Affair" is handled nicely, as is the clamor occasioned by the posthumous publication of Hume's Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion. An appendix reprints Hume's My Own Life and Smith's letter to William Strahan about Hume's final days and character. VERDICT Easy to digest and smart. Recommended.-Mark Spencer, Brock Univ., St. Catharines, Ont. © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review

Affecting story of the friendship, intellectual and personal, of David Hume and Adam Smith, two of the greatest exponents of the Scottish Enlightenment.Both Hume and Smith were controversial in their day, writes Rasmussen (Political Science/Tufts Univ.; The Pragmatic Enlightenment: Recovering the Liberalism of Hume, Smith, Montesquieu, and Voltaire, 2013, etc.), and not just for the scandalous lack of religiosity for which the former was especially known. Perhaps a touch more pious, Smith earned a share of trouble for having described "the cheerfulness and equanimity of Hume's final days," during which, the good burghers of Edinburgh were betting, he would turn to God. It didn't happen. Basing his account in part on the letters Hume and Smith exchanged, Rasmussen builds an intellectual biography in which the two evolve from "Dear Smith" and "Dear Hume" to "My Dearest Friend"that last "an epithet that neither of them used with any other correspondent during the course of their friendship." That friendship extended across two fruitful decades of Scotland's golden age, and Rasmussen wisely does not attempt any presentist shoehorning of Hume as philosopher and Smith as economist but instead allows them the full range of pursuits across many fields. For example, though Hume today is well-known for forays into epistemology, Rasmussen writes discerningly of his "last major literary undertaking," a multivolume history of England. (There is a small irony in Hume's dislike of the English, for which reason we find Smith cajoling Hume to move to England with him: "Let us make short excursions together sometimes to see our friends in France and sometimes to see our friends in Scotland, but let London be the place of our ordinary residence.") Though Rasmussen offers plenty of insights into the personalities of the two, it is their ideas that endureand that dominate this fine book, touching on morality, mind, and, yes, market. Lively and accessibleof broad interest to readers in philosophy, economics, political science, and other disciplines. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

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