Where: Lane 124
Using modern technological tools, Dr. Daniel Klein will provide strong evidence that Adam Smith was the key figure in developing terminology that has evolved into the rhetoric of the "liberalism" of the nineteenth century and beyond. The contention is significant for considerations of today's political terminology. Klein will discuss how, beginning around 1880, the original Smithean meaning of liberalism came to be subverted and confused, leading to the dreadful semantic darkness and confusion in which we are stuck today.
Dr. Klein is professor of economics at George Mason University, where he leads a program in Adam Smith studies. He is the chief editor of Econ Journal Watchand author of Knowledge and Cooperation: A Liberal Interpretation. He has coauthored several papers with, and supervised the dissertation of, Hillsdale professor, Michael Clark.
October 07, 2013