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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 September 2023
The focus is on how Smith realizes his ends and investigates in what sense WN is to be understood as a work of ‘science’ in general and ‘social science’ in particular. Central to Smith’s argument is the correct identification of causes and the demonstration that the interactions of commercial life instantiate a few key principles (exchange, betterment and self-interest) which constitute a system that is grounded in the predictable constancy of human nature. This enterprise was never conceived as an end in itself, it was to be put to the service of improving human life. While these are also hallmarks of an eighteenth-century notion of ‘science’, WN emphasizes that a genuinely social science must recognize, and proceed on the basis that social life is a complex historical formation resistant to simplifying abstractions.
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