Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction -- "The Nicest Subtleties": Smith and Other Grammarians -- "The Didactick and the Rhetoricall" Tenses of Philosophy -- "Hence the Origin": Tenses of History, Conjectural and Actual -- The "Progress of Opulence" and the Present Perfect -- The "System of Natural Liberty" and Futurity -- Conclusion.

Available to subscribing member institutions only.

The Rhetoric of Tenses in Adam Smith's "The Wealth of Nations" examines the tenses of the predicates in the famous and typical passages of the monumental work to explore the intricacies of the rhetoric and argument they support, paying particular attention to the question of temporality. Smith's subtle modulation of language attests to his reluctance to offer a mere theory of economics and to his refusal to ignore the complicated challenges history and actuality offer to his beliefs in the natural system of liberty. The theoretical frame of the book is derived from the grammarians of Smith's age, in particular James Harris. The supple interdisciplinary approach of this book invites literary and publishing histories to converse with intellectual history.