The risks of an economic agent: a Rousseauian reading of Adam Smith

Jimena Hurtado Prieto

Colombian Economic Journal, 2001

Abstract: This article is a critical review of Adam Smith's notion of an economic agent. Using Jean Jacques Rousseau's arguments, I show the shortcomings of Smith's hypothesisregarding individuals' economic behavior within market society. The morals of sympathy, understood as a social theory and beyond the limitations Smith himself acknowledges, attemp to present the economic agent as a natural and unthreatening figure restricted to market transactions. A careful reading of Rousseau shows the historical character of Smith's construction, and thereby its failure to recognise the influence of social, cultural and economic development on the formation of this economic agent. Rousseau refuses the possibility of constructing economic theory based on this agent and denounces it as a way of justifying irresponsibility and tyranny. Two possible paths in economics are thus open: economics as an independent field of action or economics as a field regulated by politics.

Keywords: Adam; Smith (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: B1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2001
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.fce.unal.edu.co/cej/number1/7-J-Hurtado.pdf

Related works:
Journal Article: The risks of an economic agent: a Rousseauian reading of Adam Smith (2003)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:col:000096:003622

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Colombian Economic Journal from Universidad Nacional de Colombia, FCE, CID Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Facultad de Ciencias Económicas Unal ().