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The original “Adam Smith Problem” has rightly been dismissed by contemporary scholars as a red herring spurred by facile interpretations of Smith’s philosophy, especially his account of self-love in The Theory of Moral Sentiments.* Still, the connection between Smith’s two great works remains an enduring subject of interest. This paper ventures new answers about this connection through an analysis of one of the central subjects of the Wealth of Nations, the commercial man. Smith’s arguments in WN depend on a theory of human nature, a key feature of which is the original desire to better one’s own condition (II.iii.28). Hence the seeming egoist backbone of this text. However, this principle of human nature is only one among many used to explain why and how people engage in commerce as well as why and how this commerce succeeds or fails. Most important for the purposes of this paper, WN begins by attributing the division of labor to a different principle of human nature, the “propensity to truck, barter, and exchange” (I.ii.1), or what Smith sometimes describes as “the principle to persuade” (see e.g., LJ(B) 221). And although Smith argues that this propensity must interlock with human selfishness to drive the division of labor because reliably successful exchange depends upon a savvy “regard” for the private interests of others (I.ii.2), Smith pointedly does not reduce this propensity to self-interest. Instead, Smith posits the propensity to persuade as either a distinct original principle or as the necessary consequence of reason and speech (I.ii.2). How interesting, then, that Smith examines this same propensity at the end of TMS, only now under a different inflection, as the natural concern for social fidelity. “The desire of being believed, the desire of persuading” Smith writes, “seems to be one of the strongest of all our natural desires” (VII.iv.25). Moreover, Smith marshals this principle to help explain why and how people engage in society as well as why and how society succeeds or fails. This paper investigates this parallel between WN and TMS, with the goal of fleshing out the connections between Smith’s conceptions of commercial and moral life. The result will be, first, to reinforce the consistency in Smith’s account of human nature across these two works. And second, to illuminate and emphasize a crucial but often under-appreciated objective of both works, namely, to explain not simply why and how societies form, but why and how they persist.
- This is not to suggest that all scholars beleive TMS and WN are perfectly consistent. And some, including most notably James Otteson, argue that there are indeed deep inconsistencies. Even Otteson, however, agrees that the original articulation of the “problem” by nineteenth century German scholars, especially with respect to their claims about the development of Smith’s thought between the two works, was wildly erroneous. See e.g. James R. Otteson, “The Recurring ‘Adam Smith Problem’” History of Philosophy Quarterly 17:1 (2000) pp. 51-74. See also, Leonidas Montes, “Das Adam Smith Problem: Its Origins, the Stages of the Current Debate, and One Implication for Our Understanding of Sympathy,” Journal of the History of Economic Thought 25 (2003) pp 63-90.
| Organization | The University of Memphis |
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