The Infidel and the Professor: David Hume, Adam Smith, and the Friendship That Shaped Modern Thought – Dennis C. Rasmussen

I don’t relish the idea of the mythic figures of history – those supposed larger than life people who influenced the world in such a way that mere-mortals such as you and I never will. It certainly isn’t true in the cosmic sense – we are all insignificant compared to a star – and in a truly humanistic sense it isn’t much true either, as we are all equally human. But in some honest sense, we know that some people are more interesting than others. No one will likely want to ever read my biography, while I will read numerous biographies in my life. Some things are not equal.

For me, Hume and Smith are pretty mythic figures. They were both the owners of the type of intellect I could only ever dream of having. They both exist in an intellectual tradition that has shaped me profoundly, even if my exposure to their individual work is limited in some senses. They both lived in a time when their particular intellectual tradition was valued. It no longer seems to be.

What is more interesting is also that these two were seemingly very close friends.

That’s this book. The infidel and the Professor is about that the great skeptic David Hume and father of modern economics Adam Smith were pals and influenced each other. Maybe you knew that, and maybe you didn’t. The author gives a bit of a lay person’s biography of both of the figures, and does a damn good job at that. His prose manages to keep you engaged in it, even when going over the bits I already knew.

Well, it was interesting to me, damnit. It may not be so to you. The very important question of ‘should you read this book’ will depend on a few factors, but I am reasonably confident that in most cases it can be answered with a pretty strong ‘no, not really’. It is niche, and it is deep within a niche inside another niche. Are you interested not only in philosophy, but it’s more sort of gossipy history, and not even a terribly exciting chapter of that? Well, then maybe give this a look. The opening paragraph above might be a good judge of whether you would care for this book or not. If you believe in heroic figures, and find it cool that two of them were friends, then sure, give this a read.