Introduction

This book offers an interpretation of how Adam Smith dealt with what he saw as a fundamental problem: an explanation of the economic order in commercial societies of the late eighteenth century. The thesis put forward is that concepts associated with the invisible hand must be examined as part of a complex process of forming ideas, in which metaphors as well as philosophical analysis play a role. Metaphors, in particular, are cognitive tools that (at least provisionally) direct research and help identify the causal links that explain phenomena. And Smith used the metaphors of the machine, the body and the invisible hand to explore the nature of social systems, in a setting where market societies were emerging. Although the three metaphors overlapped in some respects, they exhibited significant differences. Order pre-exists in the machine and in the body, and its component parts perform unchangeable functions, without which the system’s functioning is compromised. By contrast, in systems of the “invisible hand” type, the system is self-generating and self-regulating, and coordination between the functions performed by the parties is not predetermined.