Our Great Purpose - by Ryan Hanley (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Invaluable wisdom on living a good life from the founder of modern economics

Adam Smith is best known today as the founder of modern economics, but he was also an uncommonly brilliant philosopher who was especially interested in the perennial question of how to live a good life. Our Great Purpose is an illuminating guide to Smith's incomparable wisdom on how to live well, written by one of today's leading Smith scholars. Full of invaluable insights on topics ranging from happiness and moderation to love and friendship, Our Great Purpose enables modern readers to see Smith in an entirely new light--and along the way, learn what it truly means to possess an excellent character and lead a worthy life.

Review Quotes

Our Great Purpose is a short, engaging, and thoughtful exploration of Adam Smith's philosophy on how to live a good life, written by one of the world's preeminent Smith scholars.--Dennis C. Rasmussen, author of The Infidel and the Professor: David Hume, Adam Smith, and the Friendship That Shaped Modern Thought

Hanley is a distinguished political scientist at Boston College who has specialized in Smith; here in thirty short chapters he concentrates his accumulated expertize to deliver an Ariadne's thread to guide the reader through the multiple issues Smith introduces and explores. . . . This should be passed out to all beginning students of Economics.

---Hugo Meynell, Heythrop Journal

[Adam] Smith had a way of pulling all aspects of human society together, from eating and drinking with friends to trading on the stock exchange. To separate them destroys the larger picture. . . . While Smith never advocated 'a single best way for all people to live, ' . . . [he] deftly connected all human activity into a single, philosophical portrait, and Our Great Purpose makes a compelling case for us to study it closely.---David J. Davis, Wall Street Journal

A brilliant and original way to encounter Adam Smith--a book that will still be read in fifty years.--David Warsh, author of Economic Principals: Masters and Mavericks of Modern Economics

A gem of a book, offering fresh insights into Smith's writings and drawing holistic connections that make his philosophy come alive.---Jonathan Wight, The American Economist

An accessible, erudite, and concise introduction to Adam Smith in full, the moral philosopher of wisdom and prudence.

An enjoyable read. Hanley simultaneously recovers the authentic Smith while providing ample evidence that commercial society may be vindicated not by acquisitiveness but by the praiseworthy lives it makes possible.--Eric Schliesser, author of Adam Smith: Systematic Philosopher and Public Thinker

An essential text of practical wisdom.---David Lorimer, Paradigm Explorer

Ryan Patrick Hanley has provided a succinct, witty and informative work on the relevance of Adam Smith today, mercifully released from the old 'father of capitalism' misrepresentation. . . . An excellent primer on the true Smith.---Stuart Kelly, Scotland on Sunday

Smith, as Ryan Patrick Hanley understands well, was a modern heir to the great classical search for the good life, as much a student of the soul as of modern commercial society. In translating him for our times, Hanley offers a gem of a book, a guide to a great thinker that is full of insights about the practical pursuit of living well.--Darrin M. McMahon, author of Happiness: A History

There is a mode of teaching that explores the work of a great thinker by taking key passages and explicating their assumptions and implications. It's a form of learning that few of us get to experience firsthand. But in this book, a master expositor of Smith's moral philosophy provides us with just such an experience. Hanley guides us through Smith's ideas, and with insight and eloquence shows us the relevance of Smith's thought for the way we live our lives.--Jerry Z. Muller, author of Adam Smith in His Time and Ours: Designing the Decent Society

This excellent book deserves a wide audience and should be required reading for every college freshman.---J. H. Spence, Choice Reviews

About the Author

Ryan Patrick Hanley is professor of political science at Boston College. His books include Adam Smith and the Character of Virtue and Adam Smith: His Life, Thought, and Legacy (Princeton).