Lost Legacy Quoted on Economist's View Blog
Mark Thoma of Economist’s View Blog (here) cites my piece commenting on Walter Russell Meade’s article on 'Adam Smith and Religious Institutions' in Atlantic Monthly (March 2008 issue):
“Adam Smith On Religious Institutions
This is from Gavin Kennedy at Adam Smith's Lost Legacy:
Adam Smith On Religious Institutions, by Gavin Kennedy: Walter Russell Meade writes an interesting article, ‘Born Again’ in The Atlantic.com (March) on religious movements in the USA and goes back to Adam Smith’s Wealth Of Nations for his theme….”
Comment
The comments on the Economist’s View reproduction of my article are
interesting, especially this one from ‘robertdfeinman’ who writes:
‘all well and good to write articles about the work of important historical figures, but why does everyone seem to need to then take such writings as being applicable to the present?
Appeals to authority are one of the weakest techniques to use when trying to make a case about the modern condition. It is, however, a favored technique of those who have a set view of what morality and acceptable behavior consist of.”
It is partly because so many people across the media and in academe often make quotations and assertions about their version of Adam Smith’s take on 21st century events, mostly on the slimmest of evidential grounds and without taking the trouble to read what he actually wrote, that Lost Legacy finds it worthwhile to comment on the perpetrators.
Needless to say, I am not ‘trying to make a case about the modern condition”.
I am trying to make it clear what Adam Smith actually thought.
[Meanwhile, thank you Mark Thoma for taking notice and linking your many readers to Lost Legacy.]
“Adam Smith On Religious Institutions
This is from Gavin Kennedy at Adam Smith's Lost Legacy:
Adam Smith On Religious Institutions, by Gavin Kennedy: Walter Russell Meade writes an interesting article, ‘Born Again’ in The Atlantic.com (March) on religious movements in the USA and goes back to Adam Smith’s Wealth Of Nations for his theme….”
Comment
The comments on the Economist’s View reproduction of my article are
interesting, especially this one from ‘robertdfeinman’ who writes:
‘all well and good to write articles about the work of important historical figures, but why does everyone seem to need to then take such writings as being applicable to the present?
Appeals to authority are one of the weakest techniques to use when trying to make a case about the modern condition. It is, however, a favored technique of those who have a set view of what morality and acceptable behavior consist of.”
It is partly because so many people across the media and in academe often make quotations and assertions about their version of Adam Smith’s take on 21st century events, mostly on the slimmest of evidential grounds and without taking the trouble to read what he actually wrote, that Lost Legacy finds it worthwhile to comment on the perpetrators.
Needless to say, I am not ‘trying to make a case about the modern condition”.
I am trying to make it clear what Adam Smith actually thought.
[Meanwhile, thank you Mark Thoma for taking notice and linking your many readers to Lost Legacy.]
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