Smith and Science

Abstract

The analysis is divided into four Parts. The first examines the ‘Enlightenment commitment’ - the high value placed on science - and notes what can be gleaned of Smith’s own exposure to scientific thinking. Next the focus is on Smith as a commentator, his specific account of science as the discovery of connecting principles. The third and longest Part discusses ‘Smith the scientist’ - outlining and illustrating by means of a couple of case-studies his commitment to causal explanation in the form of ‘soft determinism’. In the brief final Part the point made is that Smith does not divorce scientific ‘findings’ from moral significance.