• James Otteson, Adam Smith's Marketplace of Life (review)
    Philosophy in Review 23 356-359. 2003.
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    Ten Neglected Philosophical Classics (edited book)
    Oxford University Press. forthcoming.
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    SOME PRINCIPLES OF ADAM SMITH’S NEWTONIAN METHODS IN THE WEALTH OF NATIONS
    Research in the History of Economic Thought and Methodology 23 (1): 33-74. 2005.
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    In this paper I call attention to Adam Smith’s “Considerations Concerning the First Formation of Languages” in order to facilitate understanding Adam Smith from a Darwinian perspective. By ‘Darwinian’ I mean a position that explains differential selection over time through natural mechanisms. First, I argue that right near the start of Wealth of Nations Smith signals that human nature has probably evolved over a very long amount of time. Second, I connect this evidence with an infamous passage o…Read more
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    Smith's Humean criticism of Hume's account of the origin of justice
    with Spencer J. Pack
    Journal of the History of Philosophy 44 (1): 47-63. 2006.
    It is argued that Adam Smith criticizes David Hume's account of the origin of and continuing adherence to the rule of law for being not sufficiently Humean. Hume explained that adherence to the rule of law originated in the self-interest to restrain self-interest. According to Smith, Hume does not pay enough attention to the passions of resentment and admiration, which have their source in the imagination. Smith's offers a more naturalistic and evolutionary account of the psychological pre-condi…Read more
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    The main task for philosophers is introducing, clarifying, articulating, or simply redirecting concepts as—to echo Quine’s poetic formulation— “devices for working a manageable structure into the flux of experience.” I sometimes use “coining concepts” as shorthand for this task. When the concepts are quantitative they are part of a possible science ; when the concepts are qualitative they can be part of a possible philosophy. Of course, in practice, concepts are oft en stillborn, while others ha…Read more