Abstract

Because of the complexities of Smith's thought and rhetoric, the "Adam Smith Problem" must be reopened, recognizing the centrality of religion in Smith's corpus. ;I. Smith's "political economy" entailed a withering of politics. Subtheses: Smith elevates economic "ends"--wealth and security--at the expense of "political" alternatives; Smith refuses to categorize and evaluate forms of government; WN's analysis of justice renders government instrumental to economic ends; the associated "philosophy of history" replaces the ancients' concern to evaluate competing claims to rule and the contract theorists' concern to determine legitimacy via natural right; "Smithian man" is more economic than political ; Smith elevates cosmopolitanism at the expense of citizenship. ;II. Given the similarities between politics and religion, perhaps politics was a casualty of Smith's battle against religion; the largest contradiction between WN and TMS concerns religion. In place of the TMS moral philosophy that remains dependent on religion, WN consolidates a new science that manipulates hopes and fears to obviate the need for divine support. ;Subtheses. Smith's mentions of the "invisible hand" raise theological/metaphysical questions for which Smith ultimately provides an ingenious, atheistic answer; WN quietly but unequivocally rejects Christianity's central tenets; WN's historical reflections exclude not only divine contribution but even the secular equivalents of religious phenomena like prophecy and dogma; WN's analysis of religious "establishment" and persecution illustrates the kinship between politics and religion, and proffers economics as the remedy for the problems religion occasions; although TMS seems more sympathetic to religion, it unequivocally abandons the Biblical God for the Deist God and rejects Christ's Messianic status; the ambiguities in Smith's account of God's purposes prepare WN's atheism; certain doctrines about the afterlife are praised for their utility but not their truth and are used to construct a comprehensive psycho-social explanation of religious beliefs; Smith's examination of the "mechanism within" that generates moral judgments both explains and replaces religion ; "natural jurisprudence" replaces divine law; Smith substitutes the "impartial spectator" for God and priest; Smith's account of benevolence and pride reveals compromises with Christianity