Adam Smith Lecture Series

Klein’s title, “Commanding Passions,” might be understood as: the commanding of passions. But another understanding is also important: the passions that do the commanding.

Klein holds degrees from George Mason University and New York University, where in both cases he studied the classical liberal traditions of economics. His teaching focuses on economic principles and public policy issues. He is the author of “Knowledge and Coordination: A Liberal Interpretation,” he coauthored “Curb Rights: A Foundation for Free Enterprise in Urban Transit,” editor of “Reputation: Studies in the Voluntary Elicitation of Good Conduct,” and editor of “What Do Economists Contribute?” Klein posted about his Boise State lecture on the George Mason Adam Smith Program website. Learn more about Daniel B. Klein.

Watch “Commanding Passions: Adam Smith on Self-Command”

Sandra Peart is the dean and E. Claiborne Robins Distinguished Professor in leadership studies at the University of Richmond and past president of the International Adam Smith Society.  Peart discuses the role that analytical egalitarianism — the view that in analyzing behavior all people are to be treated as equals — played in the theories of the classical economists, including its relationship to questions of race, ethnicity, slavery, equality and immigration. Learn more about Sandra Peart.

Watch “Analytical Egalitarianism and Race: From Adam Smith to John Stuart Mill.”

Bart Wilson is a professor, the Donald P. Kennedy Chair in Economics and Law and the director of the Adam Smith Institute for Political Economy and Philosophy at Chapman University. He is a leading practitioner of experimental economics, testing economic ideas in the laboratory, and co-author with Nobel Laureate Vernon Smith of “Humanomics: Moral Sentiments and the Wealth of Nations for the Twenty-First Century” and author of “The Property Species: Mine, Yours, and the Human Mind.” Learn more about Bart Wilson.

Watch “The Purpose of Property: Experimental Evidence on Adam Smith’s Insights.”

Maria Pia Paganelli is one of the world’s leading scholars on Adam Smith, and in January 2020 she was elected as president of the International Adam Smith Society and is a professor of economics at Trinity University, San Antonio, Texas. Learn more about Maria Pia Paganelli.

Watch “Why Read ‘The Wealth of Nations.’”

Otteson has a doctorate in philosophy from the University of Chicago, has taught at Yeshiva University and the University of Alabama, and is currently the Thomas W. Smith Presidential Chair in Business Ethics, Professor of Economics, and Executive Director of the Eudaimonia Institute at Wake Forest University. Learn more about James Otteson.

Watch “Adam Smith on Justice and Social Justice.”

Samuel Fleischacker is the LAS Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the University of Illinois-Chicago and author of “On Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations: A Philosophical Companion.” He studied at Yale University, receiving his Ph.D. in 1989. He works in moral and political philosophy, the history of philosophy, aesthetics and the philosophy of religion. Among the issues that have particularly interested him are the moral status of culture, the nature and history of liberalism, and the relationship between moral and other values (aesthetic values, religious values, political values). Learn more about Samuel Fleischacker.

Watch “Being Me, Being You: Adam Smith on Empathy, Perspective and Humanity.”

Vernon Smith is the 2002 Nobel Laureate in Economic Sciences and the George L. Argyros Endowed Chair in Finance and Economics, Chapman University.

The lecture focuses on Smith’s work in experimental economics investigating the connection between our moral sentiments towards others and how that relates to both non-market cooperation oriented toward common goals and market cooperation through exchange achieving individually separate goals. Learn more about Vernon Smith. 

Watch “Moral Sentiments and the Wealth of Nations.”