In this weeks lecture, we looked at empiricist and economist, Adam Smith and the timeline around his two greatest works, 'Theory of Moral Sentiments' and 'The Wealth of Nations'.
In both of these books, Smith shows extreme form of empiricism. He was seen as one of the founders of the scientific approach to human behaviour and of society; giving us social science diciplines of anthropology, social psychology and economics. Not only this, but Smith was also often described as the founder of economics. He believed that society had little impact on human nature and morality and any acts of kindness were merely done to protect a person's image and to make them feel good about themselves. Due to this belief, Smith claimed that any laws which aimed to stop people being slefish in this way would be unsuccessful, thus creating, 'The Law of Unintended Consequences', meaning that good intentions may result in bad outcomes.
Despite being referred to as the founder of economics, there were others before him, (the physiocrats) who investigated why one thing is more or less than another. Their answer was the 'Rental Theory of Value'. Locke mentions a similar theory in his property writings, however, he wasn't very interested in the value theory and so he is more similar to Newton than Descartes. Smith is very much a materialist and has been described by Karl Marx as a, 'mechanistic materialist'.
Smith, unlike the majority of people at this time, understood how slavery was inefficient, as they had no incentives to work. He believed that division of labour would make the workforce much more efficient as everybody would have their own jobs; instead of one person trying to do everything. " I believe, that the work done by free men comes cheaper in the end than the work performed by slaves. Whatever work he does beyond what is sufficient to purchase his own maintanence, can be squeezed out of him by violence only, and not by any interest of his own."
Furthermore, Smith believed that governments and states did more harm than good and that they were not beneficial to society. He claimed that all the state should do is maintain, "peace, easy taxes and a tolerable administration of justice".