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Machines, Bodies and Invisible Hands

Metaphors of Order and Economic Theory in Adam Smith

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  • © 2021

Overview

Authors:
  1. Stefano Fiori

    1. Department of Economics and Statistics, University of Torino, Torino, Italy

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  • Develops an original analysis of how Smith used metaphors as theoretical tools
  • Compares Smith’s metaphors and metaphors used in the seventeenth century
  • Examines the epistemological turn that occurred in Smith’s political economy in the last decades of the 18th century

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Table of contents (10 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-ix
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  2. Introduction

    • Stefano Fiori
    Pages 1-6

  3. Machines, Bodies and Invisible Hands

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 7-7
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    2. Metaphors as Conceptual Tools

      • Stefano Fiori
      Pages 9-29

    3. The Metaphor of the Machine

      • Stefano Fiori
      Pages 31-63

    4. Smith and the Organic Metaphors

      • Stefano Fiori
      Pages 65-86

    5. The Invisible Hand

      • Stefano Fiori
      Pages 87-108

  4. Visible and Invisible Orders: The Secrets of Organization

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 109-109
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    2. Paradigms of Order in the Seventeenth Century: Intelligibility as Visibility

      • Stefano Fiori
      Pages 111-134

    3. The Invisible Order: Imagination, Nature and the Economic Sphere

      • Stefano Fiori
      Pages 135-162

    4. Organization and Invisible Forces in the Life Sciences of the Late Eighteenth Century

      • Stefano Fiori
      Pages 163-180

  5. Forms and Experiences of Time

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 181-181
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    2. Time and Social Order

      • Stefano Fiori
      Pages 183-208

    3. Conclusions

      • Stefano Fiori
      Pages 209-214

  6. Back Matter

    Pages 215-242
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Keywords

About this book

What was Adam Smith’s intellectual laboratory? How did his economic theory take shape? Were his metaphors of order only residual and ornamental expressions? This book answers these questions by analyzing the formation of the concepts of market and social order in Adam Smith’s work, by considering various aspects of his approach. It analyzes how metaphors and pre-analytical concepts influenced Smith’s theory. In line with studies that deal with the cognitive role of metaphors in science, this book suggests that in Smith’s work metaphors provided a framework, on which basis the theory subsequently developed. Therefore, as such they were part of that intellectual process which made possible the formation of structured concepts.
The content and scope of the book permits a more comprehensive interpretation of Smith’s thought, in which many aspects of his work are taken into consideration in order to explain a crucial problem for Smith: the nature and causes of social and economic order. The book also shows that in general, formation of theories is a complex process that includes pre-analytical views as non-residual parts of inquiry.

Authors and Affiliations

  • Department of Economics and Statistics, University of Torino, Torino, Italy

    Stefano Fiori

About the author

Stefano Fiori teaches economics in the Department of Economics and Statistics “Cognetti de Martiis” University of Torino, Italy. His research fields focus on the history of economic thought and on the connection between philosophy, economics, and other social sciences, viewed in historical perspective. His scientific interests include pre-classical and classical economics, Austrian economics, institutional and new institutional economics, economic methodology, and theories of bounded rationality.

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Machines, Bodies and Invisible Hands

  • Book Subtitle: Metaphors of Order and Economic Theory in Adam Smith

  • Authors: Stefano Fiori

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-85206-1

  • Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham

  • eBook Packages: Economics and Finance, Economics and Finance (R0)

  • Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-030-85205-4Published: 24 October 2021

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-85208-5Published: 25 October 2022

  • eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-85206-1Published: 23 October 2021

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: IX, 242

  • Topics: History of Economic Thought/Methodology, Social Theory

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