The Paradox of Progress

Decline and Decay in The Wealth of Nations

Datos Bibliográficos

ID5000684
AutoresRobert L Heilbroner (autor de correspondencia)
Año1973
Volumen34
Número2
Páginas243
Fecha de publicación1973-04-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaJournal of the History of Ideas (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0022-5037 • E-ISSN: 1086-3222
EditorialJSTOR (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/2708728
OpenAlexW2331281490
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas21

is the profound pessimism concealed within Smith's economic and social scheme of evolution. To be sure, many writers have noted that Smith's grand trajectory of economic development terminates in a stagnant as well as stationary state, and recently attention has been focused on Smith's recognition of alienation as an integral part of commercial society.1 To the best of my knowledge, however, these two strands of Smith's exposition have not been tied together to yield the disconcerting but inescapable judgment that Smith's economic and social philosophies are ultimately indefensible in terms of one another. For the disturbing import of The Wealth of Nations, taken in its entirety, is that it espouses a socio-economic system that can find its justification neither in the promise of continuous economic betterment nor in the prospect of general social betterment. Instead we are faced with the deeply pessimistic prognosis of an evolutionary trend in which both decline and decay attend-material decline awaiting at the terminus of the economic journey, moral decay suffered by society in the course of its journeying. It is this insufficiently examined dark side of Smith's thought that I wish to explore in this essay. The task will lead to a discussion in three stages. First, I shall present as succinctly as possible the basic schemata of historical progress and economic growth, in order to set the stage for an analysis of the central issues to follow. Next, we must look into the causes of moral decay and economic decline, as

Development economics · Economics · Neoclassical economics · Political science · Positive economics · Economic Theory and Institutions · Economic Theory and Policy · Philosophy