This book explores and compares the works of two great economists and philosophers, David Hume and Adam Smith, considering their contributions to language, perception, sympathy, reason, art and theatre to find a general theory of rationality and economics. The author considers and analyses both figures through a range of approaches, and moves on to demonstrate how different concepts of language affect Hume's and Smith's idea of value and economic growth. This book contributes to a wider literature on communication and language to demonstrate that economics is linked to rhetoric and is an essential part of human nature.

Estrella Trincado is Professor of Economic History and History of Economic Thought at the Complutense University of Madrid, Spain. Her research interests specialise in the history of economic thought in general and in classical economics in particular. In 2011 she won the Young Scholar of the Year award presented at the European Society for the History of Economic Thought(ESHET). Estrella is an author of books and has contributed to book chapters and a number of papers published in international journals.

1. The Setting of the Play.- 2. Hume and Smith: Truth and Experience.- 3. David Hume.- 4. Adam Smith.- 5. Rhetoric in Hume and Smith.- 6. Consequences for Economic Theory.- 7. Conclusion.