Adam Smith vs. Karl Marx

Samia Sahar 12/20/10                                           Global History 2 - 10 Pd. 8  
Adam Smith vs. Karl Marx
        Adam Smith, a brilliant philosopher was born in Kirkcaldy, Fife, Scotland. Knowing that Adam was baptized on June 5, 1723 gives an approximate date of his birth, although, still to this day, his precise date of birth is unknown. Six months before Adam’s birth, his father, also named Adam Smith, passed away. His mother, Margret, single handedly raised him until she had died at the age of ninety. In 1773, at the age of fourteen, Adam began to attend Glasgow University. There he was influenced by a famous philosophy teacher, Francis Hutcheson, and soon began to study a course in moral philosophy. After graduating in 1740, Adam was awarded a scholarship called the "Snell Exhibition" which recommended him to study at Oxford University's Balliol College.   In 1746, Adam abdicated his scholarship and escorted himself back home to Edinburgh. There Adam gave numerous public lectures which brought him great notoriety. In 1751, at the age of twenty-eight, he became Professor of Logic at Glasgow University and further on received the professorial chair of Moral Philosophy. Shortly eight years after, The Theory of Moral Sentiments became a huge attraction in Britain and other foreign countries such as France and Germany. Resigning from the University of Glasgow in 1763, Adam acquired the responsibility of being the private tutor of Henry Scott, the Dukedom of Buccleuch whom he accompanied to the continent of Europe. While having much time on his hands in Europe, Adam Smith began his most influential piece, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. Being in Europe, and obtaining his masterpieces, Adam had created a reputation for himself which led him to be elected as a member into the “Royal Society”. After agreeing to himself of ending his period of service, he returned to Scotland where he worked on his piece,...