The Adam Smith Seminars was founded by Carlos-Alberto Campos, B.A., M.A., Docteur-es-Lettrès.
Dr. Campos (1938-2022) was born in Argentina. He studied and taught economics, history, and philosophy at Canadian and European universities. The last three decades of his life were dedicated to the Adam Smith Seminars, which he founded in 1992. Dr. Campos gathered high-level academics, policy makers, and private sector professionals to discuss the economic issues of the day. The seminars featured speakers from more than 100 economies.
Dr. Campos was also an Adam Smith scholar, and wrote a book titled The Misunderstandings of Adam Smith, and Adam Smith’s Misunderstandings. In the preface, he wrote that Adam Smith "shares with other well-known historical figures the dubious honour of having been made symbols of ideas or events they never intended to be" and that "the main problem with Adam Smith is that he is so much invoked and so little studied." A purpose of the book was to correct the most important misunderstandings. Reading excerpts are not enough, and one must consult the primary sources. Campos writes:
“The reading of The Wealth of Nations , if at all, seldom goes beyond Chapter III of Book I, to which is added with a smile “the invisible hand” and “all that”, without realizing that this is an ancient metaphor, meaningless in a vacuum. That is all. This ignores a lot of material, and what is worst, the man, the human being Adam Smith, and what he really tried to achieve. The key to understand that is in another book, totally ignored, which is indispensable to understand both the man and The Wealth of Nations : The Theory of Moral Sentiments . This was his first and his last book. Published in 1759, Adam Smith constantly revised and republished it in 1761, 1767, 1774 1781 and finally, in a much-enlarged 6th edition, in 1790, shortly before his death.”
If people read Adam Smith, they would understand that he is much different from what he has been made to symbolize. Dr. Campos writes:
“This honest, compassionate man, was not the first great economist. He neither considered himself to be an economist, nor wanted to be one. He was the last great moral philosopher, in the grand, millenaries old tradition of those who tried to educate the statesmen. And his work will remain a fresh fountain of inspiration for those interested in economic policy and economic and human development.” .