Organization and Invisible Forces in the Life Sciences of the Late Eighteenth Century

Some features of Smith’s theory can be better appreciated if compared with the theoretical developments that took place in the life sciences of his time. What Smith’s economic theory and coeval biological knowledge had in common was the shift from the analysis of observable interdependencies to the analysis of the order (or organization) engendered by invisible forces which account for social and economic coordination. In some respects, the invisible hand was similar to the image adopted by Théophile Bordeu, who described the natural body as a “swarm of bees” which behaves as a unitary system, although it is formed by distinct insects. Buffon, Maupertuis, Diderot and scholars of the Medical School of Montpellier also maintained that life cannot be explained in mechanical terms, and the visible dimensions of biological phenomena must necessarily refer to unknown forces which fix the organization of living beings. Smith’s notion of order had some elements in common with these medical and physiological conceptions, although economic theory and the sciences of life essentially revisited their analytical tools independently. This chapter discusses how these approaches changed the foundations of the two disciplines.