Book Review: Adam Smith: Systematic Philosopher and Public Thinker, by Eric Schliesser
Date | 01 October 2019 |
Published date | 01 October 2019 |
DOI | 10.1177/0090591718805507 |
Subject Matter | Book Reviews |
Book Reviews 745
Adam Smith: Systematic Philosopher and Public Thinker, by Eric Schliesser. Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 2017, 432 pp.
Reviewed by: Maria A. Carrasco, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Macul, Chile
DOI: 10.1177/0090591718805507
Few decades after the historical debate about the consistency of Adam
Smith’s two great works, The Theory of Moral Sentiments (TMS) and the
Wealth of Nations (WN), has been more or less settled, Eric Schliesser pro-
poses an interpretation that places the debate at the very opposite extreme:
that not only Smith’s different works do not contradict each other but rather
they are integral parts of a single system. It is not only his moral theory that
illuminates his economic theory, but also Smith’s metaphysics, epistemology,
and philosophy of mind shed light on his practical philosophy. Thereby, and
far from the incoherence discussed for decades, Schliesser contends that
Smith can be read as developing a “system of the sciences” (5), unveiling
interesting unexplored connections between the different parts of the whole.
This shift, from a discussed inconsistency to a well-argued systematicity, is
one of the various paradoxes that Adam Smith: Systematic Philosopher and
Public Thinker posits, opening up new perspectives in the study of Smith.
According to Schliesser, Adam Smith had two projects: a system of
anthropic philosophy and a system of scientific systems. The first project
describes the social, moral, and economic conditions for harmony in society;
the second includes metaphysics, philosophy of mind, of science, epistemol-
ogy, and, generally speaking, the theoretical account of the development of
human beings. However, and given that philosophy for Smith consisted of
“the science of the connecting principles of nature” (“Astronomy,” 2.12), he
also aspired to connect both projects into one harmonious and distinct whole.
This is what Schliesser aims to demonstrate, illuminating Smith’s anthropic
philosophy (mainly the TMS and WN) with theoretical considerations
extracted from some of his essays (“External Senses,” “Astronomy,” and
“Languages”). It is a book dense in ideas and proposals for interpretation,
which somehow mirrors the double perspective he wants to depict: on the one
hand, it is thematically organized into quite separate modules; and on the other
hand, it always maintains the vision of wholeness, identifying systematic con-
nections between the independent parts. This interplay of perspectives is one
of the feats of the book, to which a third connection can be added: that between
Smith the philosopher and Smith the public man, who seeks to have an influ-
ence on his own society.
Schliesser begins his interpretation with the anthropic system, specifi-
cally moral philosophy. His expository strategy vigorously evokes David
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