Feb. 22: ‘Why Liberals Need Adam Smith’

“Why Liberals Need Adam Smith,” a lecture by Jack Russell Weinstein, Chester Fritz Distinguished Professor of Philosophy, is set for Wednesday, Feb. 22,  4 p.m., in the Memorial Union Lecture Bowl.

Adam Smith is best known as an icon of free-market conservatism, but this caricature is both new and too simplistic. He was a radical in the 18th century when he wrote, and still has much to offer contemporary American progressives. In this discussion, Weinstein will present the Adam Smith of the left, a philosopher and economist who supported empathy, fair-labor practices, and the arts. He was a feminist, a proto-Marxist, an abolitionist, and an advocate for the living wage. Come learn about the Adam Smith they won’t tell you about—the Adam Smith liberals can be proud of.

Jack Russell Weinstein is a Chester Fritz Distinguished Professor of Philosophy and the Director of the Institute for Philosophy in Public Life at UND. He is the host of Prairie Public Radio’s Why? Philosophical Discussions about Everyday Life, and the author of three books, including, most recently, Adam Smith’s Pluralism: Rationality, Education, and the Moral Sentiments.

For more information, contact alexander.walton@und.edu or Jack Weinstein at jack.weinstein@und.edu.