Smith and Humboldt on the Scope of Government
ABSTRACT
Through a comparison between Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations and Wilhelm von Humboldt's The Limits of State Action, this conference explored the justifications for governmental intervention in a free society, as well as potential dangers to individual liberty resulting from various governmental interventions.
READING LIST
From Liberty Fund
An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (vol. 1)
by
By Adam Smith
Edited by R. H. Campbell and A. S. Skinner
William B. Todd, Textual Editor
First published in 1776, the year in which the American Revolution officially began, Smith’s Wealth of Nations sparked a revolution of its own. In it Smith analyzes the major elements of political economy, from market pricing and the division of labor to monetary, tax, trade, and other government policies that…
An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (vol. 2)
by
By Adam Smith
Edited by R. H. Campbell and A. S. Skinner
William B. Todd, Textual Editor
First published in 1776, the year in which the American Revolution officially began, Smith’s Wealth of Nations sparked a revolution of its own. In it Smith analyzes the major elements of political economy, from market pricing and the division of labor to monetary, tax, trade, and other government policies that…
Lectures on Jurisprudence
by
By Adam Smith
Edited by R. L. Meek, D. D. Raphael, and P. G. Stein
Smith’s Lectures on Jurisprudence, originally delivered at the University of Glasgow in 1762–1763, presents his “theory of the rules by which civil government ought to be directed.” The chief purpose of government, according to Smith, is to preserve justice; and “the object of justice is security from injury.” The state…
Additional Readings
Humboldt, Wilhelm von. The Limits of State Action. Edited by J. W. Burrow. Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, Inc., 1993.