The argument in The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith depends on the Essay

The argument in The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith depends on the possibility of failure. Why is this so What implications does this have - Essay Example The wealth of nations forms the second branch of Smith's science, and its historical sweep contains part, but only a diminutive part, of such an account. Possibly a manuscript was among the objects consigned to the flames by his literary executors. We do, nevertheless, have two sets of notes recording Smith's early Lectures on Jurisprudence; these notes provide an inadequately early and imperfect indication of what his missing branch of the science might have contained. In spite of their mistakes, these notes have significantly increased our awareness of Smith's intention to communicate an integrated science. Several problems like probability of failure have been deliberated to reside in the interstices between the three branches of Smith's science. Clearly it was at one time likely to refer to the Adam Smith problem of failure as the (challenging) relationship between the wealth of nations and the Theory of Moral Sentiments. I desire to see the limitations of his branches as giving rise to interpretive uncertainties rather than problems. As far as the state goes, the fundamental uncertainty arises from the fact that parts of the wealth of nations seem to take nations for granted (especially the introduction and plan of the work), yet national boundaries form a very strong threat to social progress throughout Smith's intellectual system: to the development of material welfare at different points in the wealth of nations and to the progress of benevolence in the Theory of Moral Sentiments. The jurisprudential constituent of Smith's science was never concluded, but his early lectures on th e subject also propose that he regarded the nation state as a transitional form: one that already needed replacement in his day. Modern preoccupations with certain matters of policy have given Smith's economic analysis and associated prescriptions renewed prominence. The psychological judgments on which The Wealth of Nations is apparently based have also attracted attention and made familiar Smith's classic statement that: It is not from the generosity of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we look forward to our dinner, but from the view to their own interest. Nobody except a beggar chooses to rely mainly upon the munificence of his fellow citizens. Even a beggar does not depend upon it completely. (Wealth Of Nations I. ii. 2) Economists have interpreted this statement to mean that Smith was dealing with a restricted range of human experience in The Wealth of Nations-- what Alfred Marshall was later to describe as the study of mankind 'in the ordinary business life' ( 1956, p. 12). Looked at in this way, the suggestion that men act in a self interested manner can be seen as a hypothesis which makes the task of economic analysis more manageable. Exactly this point was made by Smith's contemporary, Sir James Steuart, when be observed: 'The principle of self-interest will serve as a general key to this enquiry; and it may, in one sense, be considered as the ruling principle of