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Adam Smiths Political Philosophy

When Adam Smith published his celebrated writings on economics andmoral philosophy he famously referred to the operation of an invisible hand.Adam Smiths Political Philosophy makes visible the invisible hand by examin-ing its significance in Smiths political philosophy and relating it to similarconcepts used by other philosophers, revealing a distinctive approach tosocial theory that stresses the significance of the unintended consequences ofhuman action.

This book introduces greater conceptual clarity to the discussion of theinvisible hand and the related concept of unintended order in the work ofSmith and in political theory more generally. By examining the applicationof spontaneous order ideas in the work of Smith, Hume, Hayek and Popper,Adam Smiths Political Philosophy traces similarities in approach and fromthese builds a conceptual, composite model of an invisible hand argument.While setting out a clear model of the idea of spontaneous order the bookalso builds the case for using the idea of spontaneous order as an explanatorysocial theory, with chapters on its application in the fields of science, moralphilosophy, law and government.

Craig Smith is a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department ofPolitics at the University of Glasgow where he is conducting research on thepolitical thought of Adam Ferguson.

Routledge studies in social and political thought

1 Hayek and AfterHayekian liberalism as a research programmeJeremy Shearmur

2 Conflicts in Social ScienceEdited by Anton van Harskamp

3 Political Thought of Andr GorzAdrian Little

4 Corruption, Capitalism and DemocracyJohn Girling

5 Freedom and Culture in Western SocietyHans Blokland

6 Freedom in EconomicsNew perspectives in normative analysisEdited by Jean-Francois Laslier, Marc Fleurbaey, Nicolas Gravel and Alain Trannoy

7 Against PoliticsOn government, anarchy and orderAnthony de Jasay

8 Max Weber and Michel FoucaultParallel life worksArpad Szakolczai

9 The Political Economy of Civil Society and Human RightsG.B. Madison

10 On Durkheims Elementary Forms of Religious LifeEdited by W.S.F. Pickering, W. Watts Miller and N.J. Allen

11 Classical IndividualismThe supreme importance of each human beingTibor R. Machan

12 The Age of ReasonsQuixotism, sentimentalism and political economy in eighteenth-century BritainWendy Motooka

13 Individualism in Modern ThoughtFrom Adam Smith to HayekLorenzo Infantino

14 Property and Power in Social TheoryA study in intellectual rivalryDick Pels

15 Wittgenstein and the Idea of a Critical Social TheoryA critique of Giddens, Habermas and BhaskarNigel Pleasants

16 Marxism and Human NatureSean Sayers

17 Goffman and Social OrganizationStudies in a sociological legacyEdited by Greg Smith

18 Situating HayekPhenomenology and the neo-liberal projectMark J. Smith

19 The Reading of Theoretical TextsPeter Ekegren

20 The Nature of CapitalMarx after FoucaultRichard Marsden

21 The Age of ChanceGambling in western cultureGerda Reith

22 Reflexive Historical SociologyArpad Szakolczai

23 Durkheim and RepresentationsEdited by W.S.F. Pickering

24 The Social and Political Thought of Noam ChomskyAlison Edgley

25 Hayeks Liberalism and Its OriginsHis idea of spontaneous order and the Scottish EnlightenmentChristina Petsoulas

26 Metaphor and the Dynamics of KnowledgeSabine Maasen and Peter Weingart

27 Living with MarketsJeremy Shearmur

28 Durkheims SuicideA century of research and debateEdited by W.S.F. Pickering and Geoffrey Walford

29 Post-MarxismAn intellectual historyStuart Sim

30 The Intellectual as StrangerStudies in spokespersonshipDick Pels

31 Hermeneutic Dialogue and Social ScienceA critique of Gadamer and HabermasAustin Harrington

32 Methodological IndividualismBackground, history and meaningLars Udehn

33 John Stuart Mill and Freedom of ExpressionThe genesis of a theoryK.C. ORourke

34 The Politics of Atrocity and ReconciliationFrom terror to traumaMichael Humphrey

35 Marx and WittgensteinKnowledge, morality, politicsEdited by Gavin Kitching and Nigel Pleasants

36 The Genesis of ModernityArpad Szakolczai

37 Ignorance and LibertyLorenzo Infantino

38 Deleuze, Marx and PoliticsNicholas Thoburn

39 The Structure of Social TheoryAnthony King

40 Adorno, Habermas and the Search for a Rational SocietyDeborah Cook

41 Tocquevilles Moral and Political ThoughtNew liberalismM.R.R. Ossewaarde

42 Adam Smiths Political PhilosophyThe invisible hand and spontaneous orderCraig Smith

Adam Smiths PoliticalPhilosophyThe invisible hand and spontaneous order

Craig Smith

First published 2006by Routledge

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2006 Craig Smith

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted orreproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical,or other means, now known or hereafter invented, includingphotocopying and recording, or in any information storage orretrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

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ISBN 0-415-36094-3

This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2006.

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ISBN 0-203-00848-0 Master e-book ISBN

(Print Edition)

Contents

Preface viiiAbbreviations ix

1 Spontaneous order in liberal political thought 1

2 The science of man 15

3 The science of morals 34

4 The science of jurisprudence 48

5 The science of political economy 68

6 The evolution of science 97

7 The evolution of morality 118

8 The evolution of law and government 136

9 The evolution of markets 151

10 The invisible hand 164

Notes 169Bibliography 192Index 204

Preface

This book began life as part of the research for my PhD thesis entitled TheIdea of Spontaneous Order in Liberal Political Thought. My research has benefitedthroughout from the patient guidance and advice of Professor Christopher J.Berry and from the supportive atmosphere of the Department of Politics atthe University of Glasgow. Thanks are also due to my examiners, ProfessorNorman Barry and Mr Michael Lessnoff for many helpful comments. Theresearch was undertaken with the support of the Students Awards Agencyfor Scotlands Scottish Studentship Scheme and the editorial work was com-pleted during my appointment as a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow.Im grateful to both of these institutions for their support, and also to theInstitute for Humane Studies, the Institute of Economic Affairs and theLiberty Fund for the opportunity to discuss topics relating to the research.Terry Clague and the editorial staff at Routledge Research are also to bethanked for their work in producing this volume and Im grateful to theOxford University Press for permission to reproduce material from theGlasgow Edition of the Works and Correspondence of Adam Smith. Ishould also mention that the material in this book is complemented by myarticle Adam Smith on Progress and Knowledge that will appear in theRoutledge volume New Voices on Adam Smith edited by Eric Schliesser andLeonidas Montes. Finally, on a personal note, thanks are due to Wallace andMary Jackson and to my family, without whose support this book wouldnthave appeared, and to whom it is dedicated.

Abbreviations

ECS Adam Ferguson An Essay on the History of Civil Society [1767], ed.Fania Oz-Salzberger, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,1995.

EMPL David Hume Essays Moral, Political, and Literary [1777], ed. EugeneF. Miller, Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 1985.

ENQ David Hume Enquiries Concerning Human Understanding and Concern-ing the Principles of Morals [1777], 3rd edition, ed. L.A. Selby-Bigge,rev. P.H. Nidditch, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1975.

EPS Adam Smith Essays on Philosophical Subjects [1795], ed. W.P.D.Wightman, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1980.

LJP Adam Smith Lectures on Jurisprudence, ed. R.L. Meek, D.D. Raphaeland P.G. Stein, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1978.

LLL F.A. Hayek Law, Legislation and Liberty [197382], 3 vols. London:Routledge, 1993.

LRBL Adam Smith Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres, ed. J.C. Bryce,Oxford: Oxford University Press.

THN David Hume A Treatise of Human Nature [1739], 2nd edition, ed.L.A. Selby-Bigge, rev. P.H. Nidditch, Oxford: Clarendon, 1978.

TMS Adam Smith The Theory of Moral Sentiments [1759], ed. D.D.Raphael and A.L. Macfie, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1976.Reproduced by permission of Oxford University Press.

WN Adam Smith An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth ofNations [1776], ed. R.H. Campbell, A.S. Skinner and W.B. Todd,Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1976. Reproduced by permissionof Oxford University Press.

1 Spontaneous order in liberalpolitical thought

All nature is connected; and the world itself consists of parts, which, like thestones of an arch, mutually support and are supported. This order of thingsconsists of movements, which, in a state of counteraction and apparent dis-turbance, mutu