The Infidel and the Professor

David Hume, Adam Smith, and the Friendship That Shaped Modern Thought

By: Dennis C. Rasmussen

Narrated by: Keith Sellon-Wright

Length: 10 hrs and 7 mins

Publisher's summary

This is the story of the greatest of all philosophical friendships - and how it influenced modern thought.

David Hume is widely regarded as the most important philosopher ever to write in English, but during his lifetime, he was attacked as "the Great Infidel" for his skeptical religious views and deemed unfit to teach the young. In contrast, Adam Smith was a revered professor of moral philosophy and is now often hailed as the founding father of capitalism. Remarkably, the two were best friends for most of their adult lives, sharing what Dennis Rasmussen calls the greatest of all philosophical friendships.

The Infidel and the Professor is the first audiobook to tell the fascinating story of the friendship of these towering Enlightenment thinkers - and how it influenced their world-changing ideas. The audiobook follows Hume and Smith's relationship from their first meeting in 1749, until Hume's death in 1776. It describes how they commented on each other's writings, supported each other's careers and literary ambitions, and advised each other on personal matters, most notably after Hume's quarrel with Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Members of a vibrant intellectual scene in Enlightenment Scotland, Hume and Smith made many of the same friends (and enemies), joined the same clubs, and were interested in many of the same subjects well beyond philosophy and economics - from psychology and history to politics and Britain's conflict with the American colonies.

The audiobook reveals that Smith's private religious views were considerably closer to Hume's public ones than is usually believed. It also shows that Hume contributed more to economics - and Smith contributed more to philosophy - than is generally recognized. Vividly written, The Infidel and the Professor is a compelling account of a great friendship that had great consequences for modern thought.

©2017 Princeton University Press (P)2018 Tantor

Excellent book

Narration is very well done
The book is worth your time. I learned so much about both men.

Beautifully told complex philosophy

The philosophy detailed in this book is kept alive by highlighting the fine differences between David Hume and Adam Smith.
Dennis Rasmussen has used the developing friendship between these two learned figures to unlock their historical importance.

Great listen.

Overall great listen. The book does the connection between the two and both beautiful and meaningful ways. You really see the importance of their friendship and they're shaping of each other's ideas but you also get a sense of each man's identity through the lens of each other. Also a great overview and at times in depth review of each man's contribution to Western Civilization.

Great book

Learned a great deal… very interesting. I would strongly recommend for anyone who wants insight on the great thinkers.

More on the Infidel than the Professor

I recently finished a book on Smith and thought to grab another about him, but was happy to see a book on two of the leading figures of the Scottish Enlightenment. This book is more about David Hume than Adam Smith, but written in a way that gives his fans great insight into him as a friend to someone else.

I enjoyed the summary of their major works as well as the appendix of Humes' autobiography.

Excellent narration.

A superb book!

A superb well-researched, well-written and well-read book, one which I would recommend to anyone interested in Hume as a person or philosopher.

a thoroughly enjoyable account of friendship

a good story, well told. It is a good balance of the personal friendship and the relative philosophies of the two men. I finished the book, wishing I had known them both. And I'll read some more by each of them.

great narrt

interesting story, lots of things I didn't know, fascinating to learn that so many great minds and momentus things were happening in such a small area all at the same time. great narrator

Great for Hume & Smith fans & much unanswered work to do

I regret this otherwise average book would not
be of much interest to those uninterested in these philosophers. It does not suffer
because of the author’s failings, but rather Rasmussen’s virtuous commitment to stick to evidence. It is dry history, free of psychological speculation. I liked this, but I think it would be dull for some.
I’m very glad it was written and look forward to historical fiction drawing from it. Eg Fantastic figures from the Scottish Enlightenment, pre-revolutionary France, and even Ben Franklin and Gibbon are in the mix. Franklin even lived with Hume in Glasgow for a month, which is missed in three biographies of Franklin I’ve read, but corroborated a hypothesis about Hume’s influence on Franklin, and Franklin’s religious skepticism.
I suppose
One fault authorial fault was a failure to show Hume’s humor and personality with examples rather than reports.
I would have liked better psychological insight into the relationship especially because it was one that was mostly long distance. But, I suspect evidence was lacking and the author’s admirable aversion to speculate beyond the evidence means these analyses are left to future scholars or fiction authors.

Excellent

The narration was great. I didn’t know much about either man, but it was a very interesting story of friendship and philosophy. I recommend it.