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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 Ibáñez,
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," _Ökonomie 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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