Neoclassical economists of the current era frequently pay lip service to Adam Smith’s theories to certify the validity of natural-laws-based, laissez-faire policies. However, neoclassical theories are fundamentally disconnected from Adam Smith’s notion of value, his understanding of the...

Once economics came to be understood as the scientific investigation of the operation of markets, economic theorists pushed ethical and metaphysical concerns outside their realm of study. After the separation, the claims of Christian theology had no more jurisdiction over the discipline of...

Entangled Political Economy, the idea that the economy and the polity are a nexus of interrelations often with unplanned outcomes, is close to the concept of economics that Adam Smith presents, a concept which was not shaped by strict discipline barriers. I show that Adam Smith analyzes the...

Italian Abstract: In questo saggio intendo analizzare il tema del buon governo nelle opere di Adam Smith, la cui importanza sembra non aver ricevuto la dovuta attenzione. La ricostruzione è guidata da tre ipotesi ermeneutiche riguardanti il ruolo svolto dall'idea di buon governo nello sviluppo...

This paper questions the common view that Darwinian biology is a straightforward extension of classical political economy. Our analysis contrasts the economists' classification scheme - whereby all humans were presumed natural kids, to be equally competent for economic and political decision...

It is argued that the status of the nation state in Adam Smith's intellectual system, the 'Science of the Legislator,' was historically transitory. Smith's conception of international relations focused on gains from international trade and openness as well as the dynamics of international...

On regular issues of policy reform—presupposing a stable integrated polity— Hume, Smith, and Burke were liberal in the original political meaning of “liberal.” Thus, on policy reform, although they accorded the status quo a certain presumption (as any reasonable person must), the more...