Adam Smith in the Works of Goetz Briefs

For Goetz Briefs, the study of classical economics was one of the central elements of his academic career. Unlike other representatives of the social market economy like Alexander Rüstow, Briefs attributed the failure of economic liberalism not to religious influences but to the Weltanschauung of the Enlightenment. Briefs also tended to regard the real events of the time, particularly the developments in America, as important to Adam Smith’s work as the intellectual background.