Adam Smith

The pride of man, the vanity of the philosopher, the misfortune of the king

Professor Jacob T. Levy, Tomlinson Professor of Political Theory at McGill University in Canada, delivered a thought-provoking lecture on Adam Smith as a political scientist.

Speaking to an audience in King’s College London, England’s third oldest university, Professor Levy discussed how Adam Smith’s work offers a profound and insightful account of pride, power worship, and the love of domination, which leads him through politically important discussions on topics ranging from race and slavery to imperialism to constitutional reform.

Professor Levy argued that the cautious liberalism we find in Smith's politics, once we take seriously his arguments about power and domination, is one with important lessons for our own time.

Jacob T. Levy is an American political theorist and Tomlinson Professor of Political Theory at McGill University. He is the chair of the Department of Political Science at McGill, as well as the co-ordinator of McGill's Research Group on Constitutional Studies and the founding director of McGill's Yan P. Lin Centre for the Study of Freedom and Global Orders in the Ancient and Modern Worlds. Professor Levy is known for his expertise on multiculturalism, liberalism, and pluralism.

Watch the full lecture on YouTube