Visible and invisible order. The theoretical duality of Smith's political economy

Stefano Fiori

The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, 2001, vol. 8, issue 4, 429-448

Abstract: The aim of the paper is to show that Adam Smith elaborated a distinctive image of nature related to economic discourse. In Smith, visible events (or interdependencies) must be connected to invisible principles which, in particular, should provide an explanation of the self-coordination processes (especially that of market). In a broad sense, this approach was adopted by a number of disciplines in Smith's time (especially the sciences of life), which focused the analysis of the organization of complex systems. Moreover, the conceptual pair (visibility and invisibility) is connoted in terms of theoretical duality, and the paper attempts to demonstrate how such duality is reproduced in Smith's economic categories.

Keywords: Adam Smith Market Order Organization Sciences Of Life (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2001
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DOI: 10.1080/09672560110079485

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