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Published by EH.NET (March 2004)  
 
Gloria Vivenza, _Adam Smith and the Classics: The Classical Heritage in 
Adam Smith's Thought_. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001. x + 240 pp. 
$85 (hardback), ISBN: 0-19-829666-5.  
 
Reviewed for EH.NET by Leonidas Montes, School of Business, Universidad 
Adolfo Ibˆ°ˆ±ez, Santiago, Chile.  
 
  
 
Henry Mackenzie, author, amongst others, of the once famous novel _The Man 
of Feeling_ (1771), and many essays in the periodicals _The Mirror_ and 
_The Lounger_, reportedly began his account of Adam Smith's last day as 
follows: "Mr. Smith was an exception. He had twice Dr. Johnson's learning 
-- who knew one language well, the Latin -- though he had none of his 
affectation of it" (Clayden, 1887, p. 166-67). One reason underlying this 
judgment reflects Smith's proficiency both in Latin and Greek. At that time 
only knowledge of Latin was common, and the classics were widely read and 
discussed. A reading of Smith's _Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres_ 
reveals a great command of both classical languages. A quick look at 
Smith's Library (Bonar, 1966) shows an important collection of the 
classics. His works are permeated by a deep knowledge of the classics. Adam 
Smith would read, and foster his students in reading the classics either in 
Greek or Latin. His letters to Lord Shelburne about his son's education are 
a great example; Smith would personally help him out two and three hours a 
day in "Greek, Latin and Philosophy" (Corr., p. 29), and especially 
noteworthy is the list of books he orders for Lord Shelburne's son (Corr., 
p. 58).  
 
During the Scottish Enlightenment, Smith's interest in the classics was not 
an aberration. Cicero, for example, was widely read, and David Hume 
recalled in his _My Own Life_ (1777) that during his youth "Cicero and 
Virgil were the authors which I was secretly devouring." Though Smith was 
no exception on this setting, he was exceptionally well versed on the 
classics.  
 
If Smith's command of the classics has long been acknowledged, the extent 
and implications of this fact have not been an active source for research. 
Gloria Vivenza's _Adam Smith and the Classics: The Classical Heritage in 
Adam Smith's Thought_ (2001, reprinted in 2003), not only fills this gap, 
but also delves into this fascinating subject confirming that the classics' 
influence on Adam Smith is more significant than has been generally 
granted.  
 
Twenty years ago, Gloria Vivenza published _Adam Smith e la cultura 
clasica_, a book that was only known to a few scholars, and accessible to 
those few proficient in Italian. Fortunately, in 2001, Oxford University 
Press published, with few variations, an English translation, to which the 
author added a postscript that mainly confirms her previous findings. 
During the 1980s not much was written on Smith and the classics (however, 
one notable exception, Waszek (1984), should be mentioned), and except for 
the Stoics' influence, much of this rich field of research remained 
practically unexplored for English readers. During the 1990s a renewed 
interest in Smith and the classics emerged (e.g., Berns (1994), Brown 
(1994, especially chapter 4), Calkins and Werhane (1998) and Heise (1991, 
1995)), especially through two very influential books, Charles Griswold's 
_Adam Smith and the Virtues of the Enlightenment_ (1999) and to a lesser 
extent Samuel Fleischacker's _A Third Concept of Liberty: Judgment and 
Freedom in Kant and Adam Smith_ (1999). Vivenza's English translation of 
her book with her new postscript is a timely and much needed contribution 
to uncover and foster the importance of the classics' influence.  
 
A brief introduction justifies the importance of the subject matter, and 
sets out the structure and methodology of the book. After it, five 
chapters, some conclusions and a postscript follow. The first chapter, "The 
Natural Philosophy in Smith's Essays," analyses the classical influences on 
Smith's famous essay "The Principles Which Lead and Direct Philosophical 
Enquiries; Illustrated by the History of Astronomy" (hereafter HA, in 
_Essays on Philosophical Subjects_ (hereafter EPS), pp. 31-105), and on the 
following two essays "History on the Ancient Physics" (hereafter HAP, in 
EPS pp. 109-127) and "History of the Ancient Logics and Metaphysics" 
(hereafter HALM, in EPS pp. 118-129). Vivenza interprets Smith's attitude 
towards science (and philosophy) as much influenced by Aristotle. But if 
Aristotle would search for truth as the ultimate end, "Smith sees it as no 
more than a temporarily satisfactory solution to the problems thrown up by 
the real world in its various manifestations" (p. 18). How Smith saw the 
reality of scientific endeavors is a subject that has attracted much 
attention. Its psychological underpinnings with "wonder, surprise and 
admiration" as the process to find the "connecting principles," involve a 
view of the progress of scientific knowledge that, in certain ways, could 
anticipate Popper and Kuhn. Vivenza analyses this important feature finding 
some interesting connections with the classics, concluding that to "read 
this essay (HA) is to become conscious of the high degree of awareness that 
Smith had of ancient astronomy" (p. 26). Vivenza's observation of Smith's 
emphasis on economic well-being previous to philosophical enquiries, which 
permeates all three essays, is very interesting. Then, after briefly 
analyzing HAP and HALM, this chapter closes with the view that Smith's 
position is hypothetical and relativistic, and that he "'historicised' the 
various manifestations of Greek thought" (p. 37).  
 
In chapter 2, "The Classical Heritage in Adam Smith's Ethics," Vivenza 
explores the classical influences on Smith's _The Theory of Moral 
Sentiments_ (TMS). She emphasizes the importance of the historian, 
Polybius, and his possible influence on Smith's concept of sympathy. Though 
the link between Polybius and Smith on sympathy is very interesting, the 
word _sumpatheia_ and, more strictly related to Smith's meaning of 
sympathy, the Greek word _empatheia_, has a long pedigree before Polybius 
that the author could have explored. More noteworthy are the connection 
between Smith's impartial spectator and Aristotle's _phronimos_ (p. 48), a 
brief analysis of Smith's concept of justice and its Aristotelian 
background, a suggestive conclusion (in my view correct) that Smith's 
prudence is both "partly Stoic and partly Epicurean" (p. 57), and an 
illuminating discussion of Smith's account of benevolence. Moreover, 
Vivenza underlines some important differences between the Stoics and Smith. 
According to the former, men live in accordance with nature and human 
beings are valued as part of the whole. On the contrary, Smith develops a 
model of individual behavior. Stoic philosophy seeks to curb, and even 
eradicate passions; Smith's ethics relies on passions. He would even laugh 
at the Stoics' defense of suicide, criticizing their concept of _apatheia_. 
Vivenza's reader can learn how the classics' influence on Smith's thought, 
mainly Plato, Aristotle, the Peripatetics, the Epicureans, the Stoics and 
Cicero, are intertwined, many times forming the basis of his own original 
thought. The latter underpins Vivenza's book. Certainly the Stoics' 
influence on Smith is widely accepted, and perhaps over-emphasized; anyone 
interested in discovering some important differences and the complexities 
of this issue should read this chapter 2.  
 
However, there are two points on which I disagree with Vivenza. The first 
is that she completely confines Smith's self-command to the Stoics. For 
her, Smith's virtue of self-command has "undeniably Stoic characteristics" 
(p. 57). In my opinion self-command for Smith is much more complex than 
simple self-control. Smith chose the phrase "self-command" carefully, 
otherwise he would have simply referred to self-control. Self-command is 
the most important virtue in Smith's system; it relies on the Socratic 
virtue of _enkrateia_, which literally corresponds to self-command. 
Furthermore, it has a sense of direction that makes it peculiarly rich in 
its philosophical and historical context, and one can find in Smith's 
self-command conspicuous vestiges of civic humanism (see chapter 3, in 
Montes, 2004). Second, I agree with Vivenza that Aristotle's influence on 
Smith is very important, and I welcome her attempt to uncover this rather 
neglected connection. However, she goes too far by linking Smith's 
propriety to Aristotle's mean. Propriety has been traditionally linked to 
_decorum_, but my interpretation is that this concept can also be read as 
related to _officium_, the closest Latin word for the Greek word 
_kathekon_, which can be understood as "appropriate action" (on this 
interpretation see Montes, 2004, pp. 122-28).  
 
Chapter 3, "The Lectures on Jurisprudence and Roman Law," analyzes the 
classical influences on Smith's jurisprudence. The influence of Grotius, 
and his ablest disciple Pufendorf, is well known to Smith scholars, but 
Vivenza persuasively contributes to this debate. Chapter 4, "The Division 
of Labour and the Theory of Value," investigates the debate around the 
classical background of the division of labor, and the theory of value. 
Both chapters do not only summarize the debate, finding possible 
connections, but they add many important details that reflect the author's 
own original position. Chapter 5, "Adam Smith and Ancient Literature," 
finishes Vivenza's research with a reassessment of the classics' influence 
on Smith's _Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres_. A brief conclusion 
reminding us of the complexities inherent to the subject matter and the aim 
of this book follow.  
 
A final postscript was added to the English edition. In it, Vivenza 
reconfirms her previous findings, principally taking into account Waszek's 
"Two Concepts of Morality: A Distinction of Adam Smith's Ethics and Its 
Stoic Origins" (1984). The latter is a very suggestive article that states 
Smith's reliance on two levels of morality: one for the wise few, and one 
for the common man. But I am afraid, as I already mentioned, that I do not 
share Vivenza's thesis that Smith's propriety relates to Aristotle's 
_medietas_, nor does Waszek (1984, p. 596). The author also mentions other 
recent works, most notably Young (1997) and Griswold (1999), and tackles 
the important theme of _oikeiosis_, which was absent in her previous 
Italian edition. In this subject Vivienne Brown (1999, pp. 95-97) discussed 
the concept of _oikeiosis_ and its relationship with self-love in the Stoic 
context. The conundrum of Smith and the Stoics remains open, but at the 
same time Vivenza has opened another spring by uncovering possible 
connections of Smith and Aristotle, a subject that will certainly foster 
further debate (for example see Ryan Hanley's Ph.D. dissertation, 
University of Chicago, 2002).  
 
Vivenza's book is much more than a simple exposition of different 
connections between the classics and Smith. It suggests, by also taking 
into account the Scottish Enlightenment context, important philosophical 
implications for our understanding of Adam Smith, and it uncovers links 
that will trigger academic interest in this subject. Through this book, 
Smith's understanding of the classics allows us to better understand his 
own thought.  
 
  
 
References:  
 
Berns, L. (1994) "Aristotle and Adam Smith on Justice: Cooperation between 
Ancients and Moderns," _Review of Metaphysics_, vol. 48, no. 1, pp. 71-90.  
 
Bonar, J. A. (1966) _Catalogue of the Library of Adam Smith_, New York: 
Augustus M. Kelley.  
 
Brown, V. (1994) _Adam Smith's Discourse: Canonicity, Commerce and 
Conscience_, London: Routledge.  
 
Calkins, M. J. and Werhane, P.H. (1998) "Adam Smith, Aristotle, and the 
Virtues of Commerce," _Journal of Value Inquiry_, vol. 32, pp. 43-60.  
 
Clayden, P. W. (1887) _The Early Life of Samuel Rogers_, London: Smith, 
Elder, & Co.  
 
Fleischacker, S. (1999) _A Third Concept of Liberty: Judgment and Freedom 
in Kant and Adam Smith_, Princeton: Princeton University Press.  
 
Griswold, C. L. (1999) _Adam Smith and the Virtues of Enlightenment_, 
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.  
 
Hanley, R. (2002) _Magnanimity and Modernity: Self-love in the Scottish 
Enlightenment_, Ph.D. dissertation, University of Chicago.  
 
Heise, P. A. (1991) "Stoicism in Adam Smith's Model of Human Behavior: The 
Philosophical Foundation of Self-Betterment and the Invisible Hand," 
_ˆñkonomie und Gesellschaft_, vol. 9, pp. 64-78.  
 
Heise, P. A. (1995) "Stoicism in the EPS: The Foundation of Adam Smith's 
Moral Philosophy," in _The Classical Tradition in Economic Thought: 
Perspectives on the History of Economic Thought_, vol. 11, edited by I.H. 
Rima, Aldershot: Edward Elgar.  
 
Montes, L. (2004) _Adam Smith in Context: A Critical Reassessment of Some 
Central Components of His Thought_, London: Palgrave-Macmillan.  
 
Waszek, N. (1984) "Two Concepts of Morality: A Distinction of Adam Smith's 
Ethics and Its Stoic Origins," _Journal of the History of Ideas, vol. 45, 
no. 4.  
 
Young, J. T. (1997) _Economics as a Moral Science: The Political Economy of 
Adam Smith_, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.  
 
  
 
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