Biography
I hold a BA from the University of Oxford and an MA from the University of Bristol. For my MA thesis, I interpreted the methodological, normative, and epistemological features of Adam Smith's Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759) as constituting a 'science of Ethics'. I am using my doctoral research to expand on the topic, by studying how Smith's arguments about morality and law in his lectures and published work related to his tenure as Professor of Moral Philosophy at the University of Glasgow in the 1750s and early 1760s, and how his arguments can be read in terms of a programme for academic reform. I intend to use a range of little-studied archival materials pertaining to university teaching, patronage, and governance, in order to bring Smith's range of scholarly interests and priorities into sharper focus, and to help differentiate him from other luminaries in eighteenth-century Scotland.
