Welcome

Eamonn Butler and myself after being presented with the National Free Enterprise Award

Welcome to my web site.

Here is an outline account of who I am, what I do, and how I divide up my life. I try to give a brief account of some of my activities in addition to my work with the Adam Smith Institute – which I helped to found – and to explain some of my enthusiasm for them.

I hope this is a helpful way of answering things people might want to know about my various activities and interests. Of the more significant events, I would highlight these four:

The time I spent at the University of St Andrews, where I did a PhD in Philosophy, is one of the most formative periods of my life. Nearly everyone who goes there falls in love with its grey stones and its cobbled streets, and I was no exception. It was there I developed many of the ideas that have characterized my thinking. My decision to go from there to the United States, first to work on Capitol Hill in Washington DC, and then to become a Philosophy professor at Hillsdale in Michigan, also had a huge impact on my life.

The biggest was my return to Britain to co-found the Adam Smith Institute. At a time when Britain’s decline seemed inevitable, it represented a conviction that ideas can change events, and that even seemingly insurmountable problems can be solved by creative thinking and determined application. The ASI became a force for free markets and free choices.

My action in returning to academe in the 1990s to read an MPhil at Pembroke College, Cambridge, was another life-changing experience. I fell in love with Cambridge, just as I had with St Andrews, and was drawn closer into the town and the university.

These activities, along with many others, are covered in the various pages on this site. You are most welcome to look around and check out anything that might interest you. Please feel free to contact me if there’s anything you want to follow up.