Agency and discourse: revisiting the Adam Smith problem

Vivienne Brown (v.w.brown@open.ac.uk)
Additional contact information
Vivienne Brown: Department of Economics, Faculty of Social Sciences, The Open University

No 72, Open Discussion Papers in Economics from The Open University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Economics

Abstract: This paper builds on the author's earlier work (1991, 1994, 1997a), which examines issues of agency in the Moral Sentiments and Wealth of Nations, by arguing that the emphasis, in debates about the so-called 'Adam Smith problem', on construing questions about human nature in terms of 'motives to action' begs a more fundamental question about the metaphysics of agency and model of action in these two texts. The paper argues against what appears to be the current consensus that in the Moral Sentiments Smith conceived of motives to action in a causal sense (howsoever the notion of causality is construed), and this is contrasted within the analytic conception of economic agency in the Wealth of Nations which is given by the requirements of Smith's causal analysis of economic relations, including the causal determinants of the exchangeable value of the annual produce.

Pages: 40 pages
Date: 2008-08
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Forthcoming in Elgar Companion to Adam Smith, (ed.) Jeffrey T. Young

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
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:opn:wpaper:72

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Open Discussion Papers in Economics from The Open University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Economics Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by IT team member (socsci-web@open.ac.uk).