The Problem of Liberty in the thought of Adam Smith

Abstract

In this paper I propose to investigate the problem of liberty in Adam Smith's work. Suggesting that there is a “problem” may strike some as strange. After all, is not Smith simply the great defender of the system of natural liberty, a set of economic proposals that would remove the State from the business of directing the economy? Does he not maintain unequivocally that individuals are the best judges of their own self-interest and argue that they should be allowed to commit their labor and capital to those enterprises they deem most useful? Is Smith not one of the great defenders of the concept of negative liberty in modern liberal thought?