The Practical Morality of Life: Adam Smith, George Anne Bellamy, and the Theatre - Softcover

Caroline Breashears

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1399540688 ISBN 13: 9781399540681

Publisher: Edinburgh University Press, 2026

Synopsis

How a scandalous actress influenced one of the greatest philosophers of the eighteenth century

The economist and moral philosopher Adam Smith was committed to ‘a practical system of Morality’. George Anne Bellamy was a well-known actress of the eighteenth century, who published a best-selling memoir. Coming from completely different backgrounds, they both keenly observed their world—human nature, morality and exchange. Reading Smith’s final edition of The Theory of Moral Sentiments in relation to the Apology of George Anne Bellamy illuminates many of Smith’s final revisions, in particular the impartial spectator, the temptations of ambition, the character of virtue and female education. Considering her book in relation to Smith deepens our understanding of her narrative strategies and the history of an early theatre near Glasgow. The book opens a vital window into the socio-historical context of Smith’s and broader enlightenment philosophies.

• Reading together the books of George Anne Bellamy and Adam Smith
• Illuminates Smith's writing about theatre in Wealth of Nations
• Bellamy's narrative strategies, and Smith's final emphasis on a 'practical system of Morality'

About this title

About the Author

Caroline Breashears is Professor of English at St. Lawrence University, New York, USA. She has been a visiting Scholar at the American Institute for Economic Research and an Adam Smith Scholar at Liberty Fund. Her previous scholarly publications include Eighteenth-Century Women’s Writing and the “Scandalous Memoir,” (Palgrave Macmillan, 2017) and articles in venues such as Economic Affairs, Aphra Behn Online, The Journal of Ayn Rand Studies, Script & Print, Modern Philology, Philological Quarterly, and Eighteenth-Century Fiction.

Edition details

• Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
• Publication date: 2026
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1399540688
• ISBN 13: 9781399540681
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 168