Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Author-Name:  Simona Pisanelli 
Author-Email:  simona.pisanelli@unisalento.it
Author-Workplace-Name: University of Salento 
Title:  Adam Smith and the Marquis de Condorcet. Did they really meet? 
Abstract:  This article focuses on the alleged direct acquaintanceship between Condorcet and Adam Smith. Mistaken 
	information about this issue was repeated many times in the literature of the late 1800s and 1900s. It is 
	presumed that they met in France, during Smith’s journey there, chez Sophie de Grouchy. I will attempt to 
	show that the meeting between the two authors was not in fact arranged by Sophie de Grouchy, Condorcet’s 
	wife, even though she was very interested in Smithian theories, especially about the category of “sympathy”, 
	as confirmed by her French translation of the Theory of Moral Sentiments. My purpose is to demonstrate 
	that Madame de Condorcet did never meet Smith and, as a result, she could not have introduced Condorcet 
	to Smith. A greater degree of probability can be attributed to the version that indicates Turgot as the 
	intermediary between Condorcet and Smith. In my opinion, not even this hypothesis is totally convincing, 
	because neither Smith nor Condorcet ever talk about their meeting. Moreover, there is no evidence of 
	correspondence between them.
Classification-JEL: B11, B12
Keywords: Enlightenment, Adam Smith, Condorcet, Sophie de Grouchy, Turgot.
Journal: Iberian Journal of the History of Economic Thought
Pages: 21-35
Volume: 2
Issue: 1
Year: 2015
Month: July
DOI: 10.5209/rev_IJHE.2015.v2.n1.49771
X-File-Ref: http://america.sim.ucm.es/repec/ucm/ref/journal/ijohet15-2-1(21-35).txt
File-URL: https://eprints.ucm.es/id/eprint/34898/7/15-2-1%2821-35%29.pdf
File-Format: Application/pdf
Handle: RePEc:ucm:ijohet:v:2:y:2015:i:1:p:21-35