Adam Smith's Rhetoric of Economics: An Illustration Using 'Smithian' Compositional Rules

A M Endres

Scottish Journal of Political Economy, 1991, vol. 38, issue 1, 76-95

Abstract: Compositional conventions influence the form and content of the Wealth of Nations. Adam Smith's Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres indicate that he was a sophisticated rhetorician. The Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres provides rules for composing narrative, didactic, and rhetorical discourses. The connections between the Wealth of Nations and the Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres are considered. An exegesis is made of Smith's attack on mercantilism with reference to the chapter on bounties. Variants of rhetorical discourse are identified and their implications investigated. The chapter on bounties is not a polemic or an illustration of Smith's skills in applied economic analysis. It follows conventions outlined in the Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres. Copyright 1991 by Scottish Economic Society.

Date: 1991
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