Economist Adam Smith was aspie?

Post Reply New Topic

The Man Who Found Time: James Hutton and the Discoverty of the Earth's Antiquity, Jack Repcheck, New York: Perseus Publishing (Basic Books), 2003.

page 138:

‘ . . . He [Adam Smith] cut quite a figure. He always carried a cane, but never used it—rather he rested it on his shoulder “as a soldier carries his musket.” He dressed well, but not extravagantly. Like Hutton, he struck observers with his eccentricities because he often talked to himself, and his head turned from side to side while he walked. One of his biographers commented, “Often, moreover, his lips would be moving all the while, and smiling in rapt conversation with invisible companions.”

'Like Hutton and Black, Adam Smith was unmarried. Though he was sociable and fond of company, accounts of the period indicate that he was shy and spoke up only if called upon. . . ’

A new biography of Adam Smith was recently published ("Adam Smith: An Enlightened Life", by Nicholas Phillipson). Yesterday I was listening to this podcast
http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2011/02/ ... -mamas-boy
of an interview with the author. As the author described some of Adam Smith's eccentricities --some of which AGS mentioned-- I also wondered if Adam Smith was on the autistic spectrum? (But I suppose it does not really matter one way or the other.)

He marched to his own drummer, and either way is perfectly fine.