IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ags/masddp/23708.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Adam Smith'S Optimistic Teleological View Of History

Author

Listed:
  • Alvey, James E.

Abstract

Adam Smith's four-stage theory provides the framework for his writings on history. The fourth stage is the commercial epoch; the culmination of history in this stage is a key component in the conventional interpretation of Adam Smith as a prophet of commercialism. In two historical case studies Smith shows the capacity of commercial society to regenerate itself. This potent capacity suggests that commercial society is inevitable. At a certain point in time it also overcomes the major obstacles to its permanence. Smith's philosophy of history anticipates the end of history views of Kant and Hegel.

Suggested Citation

  • Alvey, James E., 2003. "Adam Smith'S Optimistic Teleological View Of History," Discussion Papers 23708, Massey University, Department of Applied and International Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:masddp:23708
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.23708
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/23708/files/dp030001.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.23708?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Rashid, Salim, 1992. "The Wealth of Nations and Historical Facts," Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Cambridge University Press, vol. 14(2), pages 225-243, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Kremser Christian E. W., 2018. "Positive Wirtschaftsanalyse oder normativer Wirtschaftsentwurf?: Adam Smiths kommerzielle Gesellschaft als wirtschaftspolitische Utopie," Zeitschrift für Wirtschaftspolitik, De Gruyter, vol. 67(2), pages 219-245, August.
    2. Engelbrecht, Hans-Jurgen & Xayavong, Vilaphonh, 2004. "Information And Communication Technology And New Zealand'S Productivity Malaise: An Industry-Level Study," Discussion Papers 23698, Massey University, Department of Applied and International Economics.

    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. Alvey, James E., 2003. "Adam Smith'S View Of History: Consistent Or Paradoxical?," Discussion Papers 23710, Massey University, Department of Applied and International Economics.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Political Economy;

    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:ags:masddp:23708. 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: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/samasnz.html .

    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.