Abstract
Born in Lanarkshire, the son of a Presbyterian minister, Millar was educated at Glasgow University for the Scottish Bar. He became a protégé of Adam Smith and Lord Kames, both of whom were instrumental in securing his appointment as Professor of Civil Law at Glasgow, a post he held until his death. He was a charismatic teacher who transformed the civil law curriculum by placing it on the jurisprudential foundations Smith had created for his moral philosophy lectures. He was a radical Foxite Whig and a member of the Society of the Friends of the People.
This chapter was originally published in The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics, 1st edition, 1987. Edited by John Eatwell, Murray Milgate and Peter Newman
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Bibliography
Igantieff, M. 1983. John Millar and individualism. In Wealth and virtue: The shaping of political economy in the Scottish enlightenment, ed. I. Hont and M. Ignatieff. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Lehmann, W.C. 1960. John Millar of Glasgow. 1735–1801: His life and thought and his contributions to sociological analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
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Phillipson, N. (1987). Millar, John (1735–1801). In: The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95121-5_2-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95121-5_2-1
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Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
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