Freedom and the Machine: Technological Criticisms in Adam Smith’s Thought

• Author: Philip D. Bunn
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/10659129221091579
• Published date: 01 March 2023
• Date: 01 March 2023

https://doi.org/10.1177/10659129221091579

Political Research Quarterly

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DOI: 10.1177/10659129221091579

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Much research in the realm of new technology and poli-

tics focuses on familiar topics in political information,

participation, and mobilization. The presence of new

technologies that increase the availability of informa-

tion and lower the cost of participation might presum-

ably have a measurable impact on the political process

in liberal democracies, although evidence for such

drastic impacts ranges from inconclusive to under-

whelming(Anduiza, Jensen, and Jorba 2012; Baldwin-

Philippi 2017; Endres and Kelly 2018; Simon 2019).

Nevertheless, the optimistic or hopeful take on new

digital media and information technologies is that they

might allow people to make better decisions about the

political process in which they may choose to partici-

pate (Bakker and de Vreese 2011). More theoretically,

there is some measure of optimism that the advance of

new technologies could be a boon to the exercise of

freedom, by giving voice, platform, information, and

material benefits to those who had been previously con-

strained (Thierer 2016; Atkinson and Ezell 2012).1 This

optimism, though sometimes scholarly, often comes

from more popular sources, such as the purveyors of

new technologies that promise convenience, quality of

life, and increased connection to a global community, if

only these technologies can be properly developed and

managed (Zuckerberg 2017; Hicks and Gasca 2019). If

they cannot be so managed, they risk being coopted and

corrupted to harm the very freedoms the optimists hope

to preserve; recent developments in politics and tech-

nology have led to sincere questions about the future of

both (Persily 2017; Helbing et al. 2019). The obvious

need for greater awareness of the effects of new tech-

nologies opens the door to deeper theoretical examina-

tion of the technologies that threaten the freedom of

liberal democratic citizens, particularly with an eye to

preserving liberal freedom. It seems necessary, then, to

turn to liberal theorists of freedom who have previously

grappled with new advancements in technology for

insight.

The dangers to freedom posed by novel technologies,

beyond more obvious and overt uses of technology to

oppress, are made clear through the lens of Adam Smith’s

criticisms of the failings of commercial society, and par-

ticularly his commentary on the detrimental effects of

technology and threats to judgment and freedom more

generally. By providing a substantial account of freedom

and a sober, moderate critique of technology within the

liberal tradition, Smith is ideally positioned to speak to

1091579PRQXXX10.1177/10659129221091579Political Research QuarterlyBunn

research-article2022

1University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA

Corresponding Author:

Philip D. Bunn, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 110 North Hall,

1050 Bascom Mall, Madison, WI 53706, USA.

Email: pbunn@wisc.edu

Freedom and the Machine: Technological

Criticisms in Adam Smith’s Thought

Philip D. Bunn1

Abstract

In conversations surrounding technology and the future of politics, Adam Smith is a valuable resource for evaluating

the subtle relationship between technology and freedom. Smith explores the tendency of specialization occasioned

by the advancement of machines to cause “mental mutilation” where the worker’s human faculties are stunted

through overspecialization or narrowing of scope of opportunities to judge. Smith’s treatment of the development

of sympathetic judgment as necessary to the practice of liberty illuminates the depth of the harms caused by this

mutilation; it is the very freedom of the worker that is at stake when the development and the exercise of judgment

are restricted. Taken together, Smith’s discussion of the advancement of machines and free and independent judgment

can aid contemporary thinkers in understanding the relationship between technology and freedom in commercial

society, particularly if new technologies substitute for the judgment of the worker or prevent the development of

their judgment.

Keywords

Adam Smith, technology, judgment, freedom

Article

2023, Vol. 76(1) 407–417