Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/324932 
Year of Publication: 
2023
Citation: 
[Journal:] Journal of Contextual Economics – Schmollers Jahrbuch [ISSN:] 2568-762X [Volume:] 143 [Issue:] 1/4 [Year:] 2023 [Pages:] 47-66
Publisher: 
Duncker & Humblot, Berlin
Abstract: 
This work offers the first comprehensive comparison between the philosophy of Adam Smith and that of his successor, Thomas Reid. It looks at Reid's and Smith's remarkably similar accounts of human perception and judgement, and at their different moral and economic theories. In this way, this paper offers not only a new perspective on Reid's critique of Adam Smith's Theory of Moral Sentiments, but also new insights into the intellectual roots of the genuinely Scottish debates about sense perception and the task of scientific philosophy. "Reiding" Smith can thus offer a unique vantage point from which to understand the connections between epistemological and economic issues in Smith's work. With a focus that is at once historical and philosophical, this undertaking serves three purposes: a) to familiarise economists with the philosophical and economic works of Thomas Reid, b) to sharpen our understanding of Adam Smith's intellectual context in the Scottish Enlightenment, and c) to better understand the paradoxical role that individual human judgement plays in Adam Smith's analysis of the economy.
Subjects: 
Thomas Reid
Adam Smith
Scottish Enlightenment
Judgement Gaps
Das Adam Smith Problem
Philosophy of Perception
JEL: 
B12
B31
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Creative Commons License: 
cc-by Logo
Document Type: 
Article

Files in This Item:
File
Size





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.