Edinburgh Group Meeting 4 February

If the Edinburgh Group decided to claim Adam Smith and his ideas for themselves and the Humanists we would be in very varied company, according to our very well-informed and entertaining speaker, Nicholas Phillipson.  Adam Smith may currently be best known as Margaret Thatcher’s favourite economist, but it is interesting to learn that Putin is preparing his version of ‘The Wealth of Nations’, that Castro is also a fan and while biographers can be partial, it does seem that there is a great deal of the philosophy of Adam Smith which can appeal to us.

Adam Smith was not so much a son of Edinburgh and our members from Fife would feel affronted if his roots in Kirkcaldy were overlooked, but it appears that between 1748 and 1750 Adam Smith delivered two courses of highly significant public lectures on Rhetoric and Jurisprudence, thereby establishing his credentials within the Edinburgh Enlightenment and influencing a formidable group of intellectuals of the age.  While many of his audience were clergy, Smith never felt the need to appeal to a deity to provide the answers to his questions about where ideas of justice come from.  

To explore all the ideas which our lecturer introduced, about the ideas of society being an exchange of sentiments, and the political economy an exchange of commerce simply a part of that study of sentiments, is probably better left for our Philosophy Group to debate in greater depth.  It is easier to say here that the questions Smith raised about such things as whether our idea of fairness is always shifting and shaped by our material situation were certainly enough to keep our group fascinated and ready to rush out to buy Prof Phillipson’s book as soon as it hits the bookshops.

Cathy Crawford. 

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