Adam Smith and the Origins of Political Economy

Social Philosophy and Policy 37 (1):159-169 (2020)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

The method of analysis Adam Smith uses is relatively similar to the method economics generally uses today, especially the subfield of experimental economics. The method of analysis that Smith uses is coherent and consistent throughout his whole work. He searches for constant variables and then sees what variables are changed by exogenous changes. In particular, Smith looks for the constancy in human nature, and analyzes how historical and material circumstances change the incentives that the constant human nature faces. This method, applied to human conduct in all its aspects, makes it easy for many economists today to see some continuity between Smith’s political economy and today’s economic science.

Other Versions

No versions found

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 98,418

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

Adam Ferguson on Trade and Empire.Craig Smith - 2023 - Revue D’Études Benthamiennes 24.
Adam Smith as theologian.Paul Oslington (ed.) - 2011 - New York: Routledge.
The Cambridge companion to Adam Smith.Knud Haakonssen (ed.) - 1996 - New York: Cambridge University Press.
The term “political oeconomy” in Adam Smith.Luigi Alonzi - 2021 - Intellectual History Review 31 (2):321-339.
Ordinamento del sapere, modelli metodologici ed economia politica in Adam Smith.Sergio Volodia Marcello Cremaschi - 1981 - In Riccardo Faucci, Michael Da Freeman, Letizia Gianformaggio, Vincenzo Polignano, Anna Li Doonni, Robertino Giringhelli, Gabriella Gioli, Maurizio Mori, Daniela Parisi Acquaviva, Luciano Avagliano, Anna Camaiti, Marco Bertozzi, Sergio Cremaschi, Gloria Vivenza, Cosimo Perrotta, Lilia Costabile & Roberto Petrini (eds.), Gli italiani e Bentham. Dalla "felicità pubblica" all'economia del benessere. Volume 1. Riccardo Faucci (ed.). Milano, Italy: Franco Angeli. pp. 153-163.
Where Economic Scientificity Postulates its own Subversion: the Scenes of Conflict in the Political Economy of Adam Smith.Anders Fjeld - 2017 - Las Torres de Lucca: Revista Internacional de Filosofía Política 6 (10):107-134.

Analytics

Added to PP
2021-01-08

Downloads
18 (#989,961)

6 months
7 (#579,712)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Citations of this work

Adam Smith, Anti-Stoic.Michele Bee & Maria Pia Paganelli - 2019 - History of European Ideas 45 (4):572-584.

Add more citations

References found in this work

An inquiry into the nature and causes of the wealth of nations.Adam Smith - 1976 - Oxford University Press. Edited by R. H. Campbell, A. S. Skinner & W. B. Todd.

Add more references