Smith's Approach and Method in the Context of the Scottish Commonsense Philosophy and Historicism

Veselina Atanasova
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Veselina Atanasova: University of National and World Economy, Sofia, Bulgaria

Ikonomiceski i Sotsialni Alternativi, 2024, issue 1, 122-138

Abstract: The present study is on the occasion of the 300th anniversary of the great Scottish thinker – philosopher and political economist, Adam Smith (1723-1790) and the relevance of his legacy until our days. It focuses on fundamental philosophical and historical aspects characterizing, generally, Smith’s approach and method. Smith specifically adopts Newton’s analytic-synthetic method in the context of the Scottish commonsense philosophy and historicism. Thus, Smith’s method appears Newtonian in spirit and a variant of Newton’s analytic-synthetic method. Smith applies his philosophical-historical approach and method in his four-stages еconomic theory. The distinctiveness of Smith’s method could be outlined comparing the favoured by this time in France – but not accepted in Scotland – Descartes’s deductivist method, Newton’s analytic-synthetic method and the Newtonian in spirit and variant of Newton’s method Smith’s analytic-synthetic method. The outlined epistemological aspects in Smith’s work are a valuable and relevant reference point in contemporary research in historiography of economics.

Keywords: Scottish historicism; epistemological aspects; Adam Smith; analytic-synthetic method (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: B12 B30 B40 B41 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nwe:iisabg:y:2024:i:1:p:122-138

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