This book examines the influence that Adam Smith's philosophy had on his economics, drawing on the neglected parts of Smith's writings to show that the political and economic theories built logically on his morals. It analyses the significance of his stoic beliefs, his notions of art and music, astronomy, philosophy and war, and shows that Smith's invisible hand was part of a system' that was meant to replace medieval Christianity with an ethic of virtue in this world rather than the next.
Smith was motivated primarily by a political ideal, a moral version of liberalism. He rejected the political philosophy of the Greeks and Christians as authoritarian and unworldly, but contrary to what many economists believe, he also rejected the amoral liberalism that was being advocated by his countryman and friend David Hume. Far from being myopic about self-love, Smith arrived at his theories of free trade, economic growth, and alienation via his reinterpretation of Stoic virtue. Athol Fitzgibbons' account is clearly written, and its innovations reveal the hitherto hidden unity in Smith's overarching system of morals, politics and economics.

Keynes's Vision is a readable and thought-provoking essay about the ideas of one of the most influential statesmen of the twentieth century. It shows how John Maynard Keynes formulated a new system of political economy, as different and inspiring as the political economies of Adam Smith or Karl Marx. Keynes based politics and economics on traditional Greek concepts, but his unique system was misunderstood. Athol Fitzgibbons goes back to Keynes's early philosophical works, which have remained neglected or unpublished, and reveals the vision behind them. By tracing it through the Collected Writings, he draws out an unsuspected and evocative theme running through all Keynes's major works. This scholarly study will revise previous ideas about Keynes. It explains in clear language how Keynes understood political and economic matters of significance, and gives a fresh insight into his approach to economic policy.

This book examines the influence that Adam Smith's philosophy had on his economics, drawing on the neglected parts of Smith's writings to show that the political and economic theories built logically on his morals. It analyses the significance of his stoic beliefs, his notions of art and music, astronomy, philosophy and war, and shows that Smith's invisible hand was part of a 'system' that was meant to replace medieval Christianity with ethic of virtue in this world rather than the next. Smith was motivated primarily by a political ideal, a moral version of liberalism. He rejected the political philosophy of the Greeks and Christians as authoritarian and unworldly, but contrary to what many economists believe, he also rejected the amoral liberalism that was being advocated by his countryman and friend David Hume. Far from being myopic about self-love, Smith arrived at his theories of free trade, economic growth, and alienation via his reinterpretation of Stoic virtue. Of interest to economists, philosophers, political theorists, sociologists and lawyers concerned with jurisprudence, this book is clearly written, and its innovations reveal the hitherto hidden unity in Smith's overar