IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/rsocec/v55y1997i3p312-336.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Adam Smith: Natural Theology and Its Implications for His Method of Social Inquiry

Author

Listed:
  • Kwangsu Kim

Abstract

This paper sees a systematic unity between Smith's theological view and scientific study of society. Smith's theological outlook as to a benevolent deity is grasped as a metaphysical doctrine in his system of social science. It arises from the fact that while Smith's opinion concerning God's attributes is established, in the first instance, on the basis of his empirical study of nature, it also stands irrespective of other facts which are not in line with the patterns of order and design. Smith's metaphysical proposition as such is methodologically suggestive in that it proposes theoretical possibilities for progress and harmony and rules out the features of conflict at the analytic level. This implies a difficulty in subscribing to a conventional interpretation that introduces the “two Smiths's” view (the duality of his method and vision).

Suggested Citation

  • Kwangsu Kim, 1997. "Adam Smith: Natural Theology and Its Implications for His Method of Social Inquiry," Review of Social Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 55(3), pages 312-336.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:rsocec:v:55:y:1997:i:3:p:312-336
    DOI: 10.1080/00346769700000003
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00346769700000003
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/00346769700000003?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Roberto Censolo, 2023. "THE MORAL FOUNDATIONS OF CAPITALISM. An Investigation of Adam Smith Pessimism," Working Papers 20230311, University of Ferrara, Department of Economics.
    2. Jimena Hurtado, 2023. "Believing, belonging and understanding : religion and philosophy as narratives and practice in Adam Smith," Documentos CEDE 20682, Universidad de los Andes, Facultad de Economía, CEDE.
    3. Walter O. Ötsch, 2006. "Gottes-Bilder und ökonomische Theorie: Naturtheologie und Moralität bei Adam Smith," Economics working papers 2006-15, Department of Economics, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:rsocec:v:55:y:1997:i:3:p:312-336. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/RRSE20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.