Capitalism and Economic Justice: Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations at 250

About this event

2026 marks the 250th anniversary of one of the seminal texts of modern thought: Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations. The Wealth of Nations has often been credited as one the founding texts of the modern social science of economics, as well as the specific economic ideology that we today call capitalism. But how does Smith’s vision of economics compare to how we understand economics today? And further: what relevance if any does his vision of economic life have in our own age – an age of increasing concern about ever-growing economic inequality, the marginalization of the poor, and the rise of economic nationalism? This conference brings a distinguished group of scholars to Boston College for a series of public discussions of these questions. It specifically brings together leading scholars from two different worlds: distinguished specialist scholars of Adam Smith’s thought, and distinguished experts on Catholic Social Thought. In gathering these two groups we hope to begin to open up some of the underappreciated and underexplored overlaps among these two groups. On the Smith side, specialist scholars over the past thirty years have successfully exploded the long-standing myth that Smith was a champion of greed and selfishness, and indeed have convincingly demonstrated (to the point of it now becoming the mainstream view among scholars) that Smith’s moral defense of commercial society rests specifically on its capacity to materially benefit the least well-off. On the CST side, during this same period (and indeed at least since Centesimus Annus), there has been widespread recognition of the need to create and sustain political and economic structures capable of securing individual rights and promoting the recognition of human dignity and the alleviation of poverty. Capitalism and Economic Justice is grateful for the generous support of the Institute for Liberal Arts, the Clough Center for the Study of Constitutional Democracy, Department of Political Science, Clough School of Theology and Ministry, Department of Philosophy, and the J. Joseph Moakley Chair in Political Science. Full details available on our website. Please register to attend. Free and open to the public.

Venue

Boston College

Boston, MA

Venue website

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