Adam Smith was born in 1723 in
Kirkaldy. After completing his early education at the Burgh School,
he moved to Glasgow in 1737 where he would remain as a student
until 1740. It was at the University of Glasgow where he first came
under the influence of Francis Hutcheson who held the Chair of
Moral Philosophy. Hutcheson, the leader of the new spirit of
liberal thinking that was soon to dominate intellectual life in
eighteenth-century Scottish universities, made a deep and lasting
impression on the young Smith. It was through Hutcheson that Smith
first became acquainted with the work of David Hume, whose
Treatise of Human Nature was published in 1…
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Citation: Williams, David. "Adam Smith". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 08 November 2002 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=4109, accessed 22 June 2025.]
