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Libertas ex Machina? Human Freedom, the Invisible Hand, and the Mechanistic Worldview in Adam Smith’s Philosophy of Science

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Sasdelli, D. Libertas ex Machina? Human Freedom, the Invisible Hand, and the Mechanistic Worldview in Adam Smith’s Philosophy of Science. Journal of Contextual Economics – Schmollers Jahrbuch, 99999(), 1-18. https://doi.org/10.3790/schm.2024.381589
Sasdelli, Diogo "Libertas ex Machina? Human Freedom, the Invisible Hand, and the Mechanistic Worldview in Adam Smith’s Philosophy of Science" Journal of Contextual Economics – Schmollers Jahrbuch 99999., 2024, 1-18. https://doi.org/10.3790/schm.2024.381589
Sasdelli, Diogo (2024): Libertas ex Machina? Human Freedom, the Invisible Hand, and the Mechanistic Worldview in Adam Smith’s Philosophy of Science, in: Journal of Contextual Economics – Schmollers Jahrbuch, vol. 99999, iss. , 1-18, [online] https://doi.org/10.3790/schm.2024.381589
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Libertas ex Machina? Human Freedom, the Invisible Hand, and the Mechanistic Worldview in Adam Smith’s Philosophy of Science

Sasdelli, Diogo

Journal of Contextual Economics – Schmollers Jahrbuch, Vol. (2024), Online First : pp. 1–18

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Article Details

Publisher Name
Duncker & Humblot
DOI
https://doi.org/10.3790/schm.2024.381589
Language
Multiple languages
Pages
18
Keywords

Author Details

Diogo Sasdelli, Center for E-Governance, Danube University Krems Dr. Karl-Dorrek-Str. 30 3500 Krems, Austria

References

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Abstract

As with many philosophers of the modern period, Smith’s thought was highly influenced by the advent of modern, Newtonian physics as well as by the so-called mechanistic worldview. However, the adoption of this theoretical paradigm leads to an aporia, i. e., to a fundamental problem, within practical philosophy: if the whole universe and all its phenomena are but reduceable to simple mechanical movements of the mechanisms of an all-encompassing “great machine of the world” – and therefore perfectly determined – how could human freedom be possible? How can there by freedom within the machine? The article at hand discusses the adoption of the mechanistic worldview in Smith’s writings and possible Smithian solutions to the aporia. Based on a mainly epistemological interpretation of Smith’s invisible hand metaphor, it is argued, as an attempt at providing a new Smithian solution to the aporia, that Smith did not fully adopt the mechanistic worldview; instead – as in Kantian philosophy –, freedom would ought to be understood as a necessary practical-philosophical assumption underlying human action.

Table of Contents

Section Title Page Action Price
By Diogo Sasdelli: Libertas ex Machina? Human Freedom, the Invisible Hand, and the Mechanistic Worldview in Adam Smith’s Philosophy of Science 1
1. Introduction – The Aporia of Freedom 1
2. The Mechanistic Worldview in Smith’s Writings 3
2.1 Smith’s Usage of the Machine Analogy 3
2.2 Discretisation and Calculisation in Smith’s Work 5
3. The Invisible Hand Metaphor in Smith’s Writings 6
3.1 The Invisible Hand (of Jupiter) in HA 6
3.2 The Invisible Hand in TMS and WN 8
4. Solving the Aporia of Freedom within Smith’s Thought 14
5. Concluding Remarks: Smith and Kant 16
References 17

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