In this article we reconsider strands of Adam Smith’s contribution to the project of the Enlightenment. Many of these, as we shall identify, remain poignant, and valuable observations for the twenty-first century. This sampled reconsideration touches both on (i) how Smith is identified, as well as occasionally misread, as an Enlightenment philosopher/economist; and (ii) the extent to which t/his enlightenment survives.
In Adam Smith’s Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations the term ‘rational’ occurs only twice. Neither of these uses assigns the property of rationality either to human beings or to economic agents. Despite that, Smith is widely recognised as the founder of modern mainstream economics, a science which is defined by the assumption of the rationality of an economic agent. This paper aims to locate and discuss the notion of rationality which is implied by Smith’s work. To achieve that a double-track approach is taken. First, the current paper reconstructs Smith’s general view on human nature which was presented mainly in his earlier book The Theory of Moral Sentiments. This is followed by a discussion of Smith’s theses on selected mechanisms which drive the economy as presented in The Wealth of Nations.
The aim of this paper is to describe the emerging phenomenon of new racism brought by the development of automated surveillance tools. We would like to show that this new system of discrimination is a byproduct of some general transformations in the field of social control. For this purpose, we will refer to invisible hand type of explanation, and the concept of perverse effect in particular. We will also relate widely to some cases and concepts from the “new surveillance” and social control literature and we will try to summarize it.
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