29,108 research outputs found
ADAM SMITH'S OPTIMISTIC TELEOLOGICAL VIEW OF HISTORY
Adam Smith's four-stage theory provides the framework for his writings on history. The fourth stage is the commercial epoch; the culmination of history in this stage is a key component in the conventional interpretation of Adam Smith as a prophet of commercialism. In two historical case studies Smith shows the capacity of commercial society to regenerate itself. This potent capacity suggests that commercial society is inevitable. At a certain point in time it also overcomes the major obstacles to its permanence. Smith's philosophy of history anticipates the end of history views of Kant and Hegel.Political Economy,
How Might Adam Smith Pay Professors Today?
Adam Smith’s proposal for paying professors was intended to induce increased faculty knowledge. If students have imperfect information about what they learn, and universities can only imperfectly measure the input of faculty time in student learning, publications may be used to measure faculty knowledge. If professors’ ability to publish is positively related to their ability to produce student learning, which universities can imperfectly measure, publications may be necessary to attract more able professors. Since research signals faculty knowledge, schools that do not value publications per se could require higher publication standards and pay higher wages than schools that value only publications.
An Interview with Adam Frank
Adam Frank was the keynote speaker for GREAT Day in 2020. His speech pertained to the field of astrobiology
ADAM SMITH'S VIEW OF HISTORY: CONSISTENT OR PARADOXICAL?
The conventional interpretation of Adam Smith is that he is a prophet of commercialism. The liberal capitalist reading of Smith is consistent with the view that history culminates in commercial society. The first part of the article develops this optimistic interpretation of Smith's view of history. Smith implies that commercial society is the end of history because 1) it supplies the ends of nature that he identifies; 2) it is inevitable; and 3) it is permanent. The second part of the article shows that Smith has some dark moments in his writings where he seems to reject completely such teleological notions. In this more civic humanist mood he confesses that commercial society does not supply the ends of nature, nor is it inevitable, nor is it permanent. Both views exist in Smith and the commentator is forced to choose between passages in Smith's work in order to support a particular interpretation of the former's view of history.Political Economy,
The Black Londoner Experience: Exploring Black Life through Records of the Court, 1720-1840
Black Londoners have lived in the city for centuries. This collection brings 10 Black London lives together in an accessible volume to share the diversity of their experiences in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries with new readers.
Drawing on the records of the Old Bailey criminal courthouse, these ten carefully selected trials have been chosen to show some of the breadth of Black experience in London during the age of enslavement (c. 1720-1840). The volume includes Black victims, witnesses, and defendants; men, women, and children; sailors, servants, and entertainers; locals, immigrants, and visitors. Some were treated well by the justice system, and others were met with cruelty. Each had their own experience.
While the volume contains details of crime and conflict, crime is not the sole focus. The sources also give us glimpses into the daily lives of these Black individuals as they interacted with the city and its inhabitants. We learn where these Black people spent their time, with whom, doing what, and sometimes even what they had in their pockets.
Each of the ten cases has been accessibly formatted for classroom use or personal study, and features illustrations by Manon Wright. The sources are arranged like plays, making them easy to read aloud as a means of better understanding the theatre of the courtroom and the power dynamics at play. Dr Crymble offers notes and reflections on tricky or foreign concepts in each case, as well as issues that he has noted through experience that students often misinterpret by making modern assumptions about the past.
John Humphreys, 1727
John Cross, 1749
Elizabeth Gift, 1755
Esther Allingham, 1782
John Thomas, 1786
James Wallis, 1801
Dolby Jackson, 1808
Thomas Johnson, 1818
'The Busker' 1831
Louis James Grant, 1840
For serious scholars of Black experience in 18th/19th century London criminal records, the author also recommends the following works:
Tim Hitchcock, Robert Shoemaker, Clive Emsley, Sharon Howard, Jamie McLaughlin, et al, the Old Bailey Proceedings Online, 1674-1913 (www.oldbaileyonline.org, version 8, 2018.
Adam Crymble and Emma Azid, 'Black Lives, British Justice: Black People in London Criminal Justice Records, 1720-1841' Journal of Slavery and Data Preservation vol. 2, no 2. (2021): 1-11.
Kathleen Chater. Untold Histories: Black People in England and Wales during the Period of the British Slave Trade, c. 1660-1807 (Manchester, 2011).
Norma Myers, Reconstructing the Black Past (Frank Cass, 1996).
Marika Sherwood. ‘Blacks in the Gordon Riots’, History Today, vol. 47 (1997), 24-28
Off the Wall (2008) program cover
BSC Drama Club presents Off... the Wall: a presentation of student-directed short plays. Includes: 1) Every man / by Michael Niederman; directed by Adam Frank; 2) The interrogation / by Murphy Guyer; directed by Kris McConnachie; 3) Daniel on a Thursday
Off the Wall (2008) program
BSC Drama Club presents Off... the Wall: a presentation of student-directed short plays. Includes: 1) Every man / by Michael Niederman; directed by Adam Frank; 2) The interrogation / by Murphy Guyer; directed by Kris McConnachie; 3) Daniel on a Thursday
Off the Wall (2008) poster
BSC Drama Club presents Off... the Wall: a presentation of student-directed short plays. Includes: 1) Every man / by Michael Niederman; directed by Adam Frank; 2) The interrogation / by Murphy Guyer; directed by Kris McConnachie; 3) Daniel on a Thursday
Off the Wall program (2009)
BSC Drama Club presents Off... the Wall 2009: Student-directed short plays for adult audiences. Dan Rogers, Drama Club Advisor. Includes: 1) Have a Nice Day / by Shel Silverstein; directed by Adam Frank; 2) The Philadelphia / by David Ives; directed by Kim Fredricks; 3) Abandon All Hope / by Shel Silverstein; directed by Adam Frank
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