IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/revpoe/v27y2015i4p585-605.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

An Archaeology of Adam Smith's Epistemic Context

Author

Listed:
  • Iara Vigo de Lima
  • Danielle Guizzo

Abstract

Adam Smith played a key role in Foucault's archaeology of political economy. This archaeology, which Foucault accomplished in The Order of Things, is the focus of this article. Foucault may have disagreed with the writings of the classical political economists but he widens our perspective through new possibilities of understanding. It is very illuminating to understand Smith's thinking as following a discursive practice that economic thought shared with the knowledge of living beings (natural history) and language (grammar). Foucault's archaeology highlights some ontological and epistemological conditions that shed light on some of the pillars of Smith's thinking: the centrality of exchange, the division of labour and the labour theory of value. The proximity between Newton and Smith is also examined in ontological and epistemological terms which can be understood through an investigation of that interdiscursivity practice. Beyond testing Foucault's considerations, our aim is to demonstrate their potential for the current scholarship of Smith's works. Foucault's archaeology of knowledge offers a range of elements that warrants greater analysis by historians of economic thought.

Suggested Citation

  • Iara Vigo de Lima & Danielle Guizzo, 2015. "An Archaeology of Adam Smith's Epistemic Context," Review of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(4), pages 585-605, October.
  • Handle: RePEc:taf:revpoe:v:27:y:2015:i:4:p:585-605
    DOI: 10.1080/09538259.2015.1082819
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/09538259.2015.1082819
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/09538259.2015.1082819?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.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Leonidas Montes, 2004. "Adam Smith in Context," Palgrave Macmillan Books, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-0-230-50440-0, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Meacci, Ferdinando, 2020. "The Link Between Capital Accumulation And Increasing Wages In An Updated Version Of Smith’S Theory Of Population," Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Cambridge University Press, vol. 42(3), pages 385-400, September.
    2. Laurie Bréban, 2014. "Smith on happiness: towards a gravitational theory," The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(3), pages 359-391, June.
    3. Sheila Dow, 2010. "The Psychology of Financial Markets: Keynes, Minsky and Emotional Finance," Chapters, in: Dimitri B. Papadimitriou & L. Randall Wray (ed.), The Elgar Companion to Hyman Minsky, chapter 13, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    4. Laurie Bréban, 2017. "An Investigation into the Smithian System of Sympathy: from Cognition to Emotion," Working Papers hal-01467340, HAL.
    5. Carlos Rodríguez Braun, 2021. "Adam Smith’s liberalism," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 34(4), pages 465-478, December.
    6. Schliesser, Eric, 2011. "Reading Adam Smith after Darwin: On the evolution of propensities, institutions, and sentiments," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 77(1), pages 14-22, January.
    7. Ballandonne, Matthieu & Cersosimo, Igor, 2022. "Towards a “Text as Data” Approach in the History of Economics: An Application to Adam Smith’s Classics," OSF Preprints mg3zb, Center for Open Science.
    8. Jimena Hurtado, 2016. "Adam Smith's Impartial Spectator: Autonomy and Extended Selves," Econ Journal Watch, Econ Journal Watch, vol. 13(2), pages 298–305-2, May.
    9. Elias Khalil, 2006. "Weakness Of Will," Monash Economics Working Papers 06/06, Monash University, Department of Economics.
    10. Stuart Holland & Teresa Carla Oliveira, 2013. "Missing Links: Hume, Smith, Kant and Economic Methodology," Economic Thought, World Economics Association, vol. 2(2), pages 1-46, October.
    11. Jan Toporowski, 2013. "The Elgar Companion to Hyman Minsky," Review of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(1), pages 175-177, January.
    12. Simon Glaze, 2015. "Schools Out: Adam Smith and Pre-disciplinary International Political Economy," New Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(5), pages 679-701, October.
    13. Ryan Patrick Hanley, 2008. "Enlightened Nation Building: The “Science of the Legislator” in Adam Smith and Rousseau," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 52(2), pages 219-234, April.
    14. Elias L. Khalil, 2010. "Adam Smith’S Concept Of Self‐Command As A Solution To Dynamic Inconsistency And The Commitment Problem," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 48(1), pages 177-191, January.
    15. L. Kiesling, 2012. "Mirror neuron research and Adam Smith’s concept of sympathy: Three points of correspondence," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 25(4), pages 299-313, December.
    16. Pilar Piqué, 2019. "The Theory of Moral Sentiments and The Wealth of Nations. Ethics, jurisprudence and political economy throughout the intellectual history of Adam Smith," The Journal of Philosophical Economics, Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies, The Journal of Philosophical Economics, vol. 12(2), pages 75-96, May.
    17. Ivan Sternick, 2022. "To be and to appear to be: Adam Smith’s response to Mandeville and Rousseau on the problem of the moral status of self-love," Textos para Discussão Cedeplar-UFMG 643, Cedeplar, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais.
    18. Eric Schliesser, 2010. "Reading Adam Smith after Darwin: On the Evolution of Propensities, Institutions, and Sentiments," Post-Print hal-00921187, HAL.
    19. Lisa Herzog, 2011. "Higher and lower virtues in commercial society," Politics, Philosophy & Economics, , vol. 10(4), pages 370-395, November.
    20. Vitantonio Gioia, 2020. "From “prudent man” to homo oeconomicus: Does historicity matter for the category of individualism?," International Review of Economics, Springer;Happiness Economics and Interpersonal Relations (HEIRS), vol. 67(1), pages 47-67, March.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:revpoe:v:27:y:2015:i:4:p:585-605. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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/CRPE20 .

    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.