Stop 3: The Lion and Unicorn Staircase

The Lion and Unicorn Staircase is another relic from the Old College Campus. It was moved brick by brick to its current location in the 1800s. The image you see on your device is the last photograph taken of the steps at the Old College before the move to the new campus. Let’s stand on the stair, as they did. Imagine posing for this photo with the faculty of the University, rubbing shoulders with the great minds of the day.

Imagine all the people who’ve walked this staircase before you.

Yes no doubt countless interesting and important people have climbed this staircase, both in the present day and in Adam Smith's lifetime during The Scottish Enlightenment period.

Tell us a bit about The Scottish Enlightenment Period.

The Scottish Enlightenment began in the mid-18th century and continued for the best part of a century. They were a group of thinkers who believed science, learning and education would help to banish superstition, ignorance and bigotry. It marked a paradigm shift from religion into reason.

They sound like some pretty important people. Were any of them women?

Outrageously, women weren't allowed to study at the University until 1892. But, we do know that Smith was influenced by female thinkers and writers such as Marie-Jeanne Riccoboni, and the Countess de Boufflers, to whom he presented a first edition of his most famous book – The Wealth of Nations. It’s likely there were female figures contributing to intellectual thought during The Scottish Enlightenment, though they could not reach great acclaim or wealth during their lives, as many of their male counterparts did. And we know from his correspondence that Smith himself benefited from the input of women such as Lady Frances Scott, who commented on drafts of his work.

How did Smith feel about this gender inequality?

There’s no evidence that Smith showed interest in this - which was the societal norm at the time.

No surprises there then!

Across his work, his accounts of women and their freedom & liberty are often contradictory, even though his ideas on sympathy were subsequently taken up by early thinkers of feminism, such as Mary Wollstonecraft.

So was wealth and acclaim the end goal for Smith?

Smith was not a big fan of the pursuit of fame and fortune and said that instead we should pursue wisdom and goodness. He expressed his view of what we truly want and what really makes us happy by stating that “Man naturally desires, not only to be loved, but to be lovely”.

What does he mean by being lovely?

Well, Smith's answer for how to be lovely was to be Virtuous - to have integrity, honesty and good principles. He believed you should strive to be genuine and modest about skills and successes.

So in other words "say little, do much".

Exactly, say little, do much and don't do unto others what you would not want done to you. He wrote "There can be no proper motive for hurting our neighbour, there can be no incitement to do evil to another, which mankind will go along with, except just indignation for evil which that other has done to us."

You can see why Smith was sometimes critical of the slave trade.

He also warned against pursuing power and fame for its own sake because he saw chasing after money, fame and power as part of the same temptation - various paths to being loved, in other words, paths to being relevant and noticed by others.

Vain or misguided attempts to boost our own egos?

Yes exactly, we imagine we'd be happier if only we were richer or more famous or had a better job. But Smith argued that money and fame should be kept in perspective.

I wonder what Adam Smith would have thought about our current celebrity culture then.

Well, interestingly enough Smith noticed that we live vicariously through the famous. Using our imagination, we put ourselves in their shoes and get a taste of the joyful emotions that we imagine accompany their nearly perfect life, without knowing how they might actually be feeling.

That notion still feels extremely relevant in the 21st Century.

Yes, many of the lessons we can learn from Smith's Theory of Moral Sentiments can still be applied today...

... even though Adam Smith's world was different to ours in many ways. Let's start walking towards the New Adam Smith Business School, as we talk further about how his philosophies can be applied to the modern world.