Scottish-Enlightenment

Imagine dropping a stone a thousand times, and a thousand times it falls. You are utterly certain it will fall on the thousand-and-first. But pause and ask: what, exactly, justifies that certainty? You have never seen the “necessity” of the stone’s falling — you have only seen stones falling. The leap from what has happened to what will happen seems obvious, yet when we examine it, no logical proof holds it up. This small abyss, opened by David Hume in the eighteenth century, has never quite been closed. It swallows causation, induction, the self, and much of metaphysics — and it is the best place to start understanding why Hume is perhaps the most unsettling of modern philosophers. ...

Adam Smith Scottish moral philosopher and economist, considered the father of modern political economy. A central figure of the Scottish Enlightenment and close friend of Hume. His work combines sentiment-based ethics with market theory. Key Concepts Invisible hand: individuals’ self-interest, channeled through the market, generates collective benefit without central planning — a metaphor for the spontaneous order of the price system Division of labor: specialization of tasks multiplies productivity; the classic example of the pin factory Labor theory of value: the value of commodities ultimately derives from the labor embodied in their production Moral sympathy: the foundation of ethics — the capacity to put oneself in another’s position and evaluate actions from the perspective of an “impartial spectator” Impartial spectator: an imaginary figure representing balanced moral judgment, detached from self-interest Critique of mercantilism: a nation’s wealth is not the accumulation of precious metals, but its productive capacity and free exchange Free market and laissez-faire: defense of competition and criticism of monopolies, corporate privileges, and arbitrary state interventions Influenced by Hume — moral sentimentalism and skepticism about state intervention Francis Hutcheson — ethics of moral sense (his professor at Glasgow) Locke and Montesquieu — liberal political theories Mandeville — paradox of private vices / public benefits Influenced Ricardo and Mill — classical economics Marx — inherited (and critiqued) the labor theory of value Bentham — utilitarianism and calculation of collective well-being Modern economic liberalism and neoliberalism (Hayek, Friedman) Works The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759); The Wealth of Nations (1776). ...