James Ahiakpor is a serious scholar and a careful reader of Adam Smith, David Hume, and apparently also of myself. I am deeply honored by the attention he always pays to my work. I flatter myself thinking that, just like Smith and Hume disagreed while remaining friends, James and I also disagree while remaining friends.

Friendly disagreements are signs of intellectual life and development. And long-standing disagreements like the ones between James and me keep pushing forward the understanding of old and new texts. I am thus very grateful for James’s letter. I wish there were more scholars as interested and careful as he is.