The Other Adam Smith: Popular Contention, Commercial Society, and the Birth of Necro-Economics

__The Other Adam Smith__ represents the next wave of critical thinking about the still under-examined work of this paradigmatic Enlightenment thinker. Not simply another book about Adam Smith, it allows and even necessitates his inclusion in the realm of theory in the broadest sense. Moving beyond his usual economic and moral philosophical texts, Mike Hill and Warren Montag take seriously Smith's entire corpus, his writing on knowledge, affect, sociability and government, and political economy, as constituting a comprehensive—though highly contestable—system of thought. We meet not just Smith the economist, but Smith the philosopher, Smith the literary critic, Smith the historian, and Smith the anthropologist. Placed in relation to key thinkers such as Hume, Lord Kames, Fielding, Hayek, Von Mises, and Agamben, this other Adam Smith, far from being localized in the history of eighteenth-century economic thought or ideas, stands at the center of the most vibrant and contentious debates of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. "The Other Adam Smith represents the next wave of critical thinking about the still under-examined work of this paradigmatic Enlightenment thinker. Not simply another book about Adam Smith, it allows and even necessitates his inclusion in the realm of theory in the broadest sense. Moving beyond his usual economic and moral philosophical texts, Mike Hill and Warren Montag take seriously Smith's entire corpus, his writing on knowledge, affect, sociability and government, and political economy, as constituting a comprehensive--though highly contestable--system of thought. We meet not just Smith the economist, but Smith the philosopher, Smith the literary critic, Smith the historian, and Smith the anthropologist. Placed in relation to key thinkers such as Hume, Lord Kames, Fielding, Hayek, Von Mises, and Agamben, this other Adam Smith, far from being localized in the history of eighteenth-century economic thought or ideas, stands at the center of the most vibrant and contentious debates of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries."--Publisher's description "The Other Adam Smith represents the next wave of critical thinking about the still under-examined work of this paradigmatic Enlightenment thinker. Not simply another book about Adam Smith, it allows and even necessitates his inclusion in the realm of theory in the broadest sense. Moving beyond his usual economic and moral philosophical texts, Mike Hill and Warren Montag take seriously Smith's entire corpus, his writing on knowledge, affect, sociability and government, and political economy, as constituting a comprehensive--though highly contestable--system of thought. We meet not just Smith the economist, but Smith the philosopher, Smith the literary critic, Smith the historian, and Smith the anthropologist. Placed in relation to key thinkers such as Hume, Lord Kames, Fielding, Hayek, Von Mises, and Agamben, this other Adam Smith, far from being localized in the history of eighteenth-century economic thought or ideas, stands at the center of the most vibrant and contentious debates of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries."-- Résumé de l'éditeur This Book Is An Outstanding Achievement: It Offers A Genuine, Interdisciplinary Perspective - Spanning English Literature, History Of Philosophy, History Of The Book/print And Novel, Social Theory, And Political History - In Order To Offer A Socially Important And Largely Original Re-evaluation Of The Argument For A Market Society And Liberal Political Economy More Generally. - Eric Schliesser, Ghent University. Introduction : A Tendency To Absence : Which Other Adam Smith? -- The Pleasing Wonder Of Ignorance : Adam Smith's Divisions Of Knowledge -- Tumultuous Combinations : The Transindividual From Adam Smith To Spinoza -- Numbers, Noise, And Power : Insurrection As A Problem Of Historical Method -- Immunity, The Necessary Complement Of Liberty : The Birth Of Necro-economics. Mike Hill And Warren Montag. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. An account of Adam Smith that explores how his minor and major writings together constitute a comprehensive—if highly contestable—system of thought, this book looks at Smith's writing on knowledge, affect, sociability and government, and political economy in order to challenge both the old view of Smith as a narrow market fundamentalist and the new orthodoxy that casts him as a champion of self-restraint and the architect of humanized markets.