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Adam Smith and Modern Economics : Reclaiming the Moral High Ground /

For more than two centuries, economists and researchers have struggled with the conundrum of reconciling Adam Smith's views on economics and ethics. While some held that Smith's capitalism and free markets institutionalized selfishness, greed, inequality and injustice, others focused on hi...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Young, Stephen B. (Author)
Format: eBook
Language:English
Language Notes:In English.
Published: Berlin Boston De Gruyter, [2026]
Subjects:
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Economic History.
POLITICAL SCIENCE / Public Policy / Economic Policy.
Adam Smith
Capitalism
Socialism
CSR/ESG
Economics
Morality
Sustainable Economics.
Electronic books.
Table of Contents:
  • Intro
  • Adam Smith and Modern Economics
  • Contents
  • Acknowledgments
  • Foreword
  • Introduction
  • Why a Book About Adam Smith?
  • What did Adam Smith Want to Accomplish in Writing Wealth of Nations?
  • To Put Adam Smith's Thinking in Context
  • Then and Now
  • The Wealth of Nations and the Second Law of Thermodynamics
  • What about Greed?
  • Reconciling Moral Sentiments with Creating Wealth for the Nations
  • Chapter 1 The Challenge for Leaders in an Uncertain World: The Only Way Out is the Way In
  • The Concerns
  • 1. Insecurity leads to polarization and even to fanaticism, facilitated and reinforced by social media.
  • 2. People are becoming more demanding and are now aiming for more recognition and involvement.
  • 3. The fearful avoidance of an y risk seems to be on the increase, both in society and in politics.
  • 4. In addition, we are seeing a growing gap between rich and poor , and the inequality is widening.
  • The Combination of These Phenomena Creates a Fertile Ground for Undermining Our Values and Democracies.
  • The First Dangerous Signs of This Undermining are Visible in Our World. They Follow an Age-Old and Historically Familiar Pattern.
  • The Hopes
  • 1. Growing awareness by politicians and governments of the dangers of extremism.
  • 2. The youth of the world create a positive momentum.
  • 3. A call for ethics in the corporate world.
  • 4. Creating a fairer economy by linking sustainable efforts to taxation breaks.
  • 5. More prominence for the Sustainable Development Goals and the Circular Economy.
  • The Challenge: The Only Way Out is the Way in
  • 1. The real challenge lies within ourselves.
  • 2. The way in.
  • Chapter 2 Starting a Conversation with Adam Smith
  • In the Spirit of Open Inquiry
  • The Philosophy of Questions
  • The Power of Insight
  • Weber
  • Harari
  • Finnis
  • Global Assemblies
  • Integrating Part and Whole
  • Chapter 3 Towards a Renewed European Capitalism
  • Adam Smith: A Conflict Between Interpretations
  • The Adam Smith Revolution: Human Flourishing for All
  • Where We are Now: Neo-Liberalism vs. Responsible Capitalism vs. Autocratic Capitalism
  • The Disappearing "European" Thinking about Economics
  • The "Thorny Triangle" of Economic Reality in the First Half of the Twenty-First Century
  • The Renewal of European Economic Thinking: Towards a Multi-Actor Approach
  • Why the Focus on Europe?
  • Chapter 4 From the Pin-Factory to the Concert Hall
  • Adam Smith's Baseline: An Eighteenth-Century Context: "Enlightenment"
  • Twenty-First Century Context: Our "Age of Consequences," Radical Social Change, Innovation
  • Actualization
  • From "Wealth" to "Multiple Value Creation," Together
  • Strategic Autonomy, Controlled Value Chains
  • The Well-Being Economy