查看文章

There is little scholarly agreement about how to understand the relationship between Adam Smith and Edmund Burke. Philosophical commentators often see the two in fundamental opposition, reading Smith’s Wealth of Nations as precisely the sort of unflinching, systematic critique of existing society which Burke is held to have so abhorred. 1 There is much truth to this; Smith himself described his magnum opus as “a very violent attack […] upon the whole commercial system of Great Britain.” 2 Yet historians point out that Smith and Burke were personal friends who not only shared a sentimental attachment, but also considered themselves to be in fundamental agreement on most philosophical and political issues. Burke repeatedly praised Smith’s writings as both beautiful and true, not only in his conversation and in his correspondence, but also in at least one published review. For his part, Smith is alleged to have …