The invisible hand of Adam Smith: From satire to social transformation

Abstract

In this article is tested the analysis and interpretation of the well-known Adam Smith’s expression “led by an invisible hand”. It is proposed as a methodological basis the need to comprehensively consider all the components of the expression, its textual and rhetorical contexts and the relationship between its three appearances. This done, it is interpreted that “led by” refers to the human interior in two of its conditioning factors: the passion of vanity and the deliberative rationality; that “a hand” is only a metaphorical way of appropriating, in a worldly context, the tradition of natural theology; and that “invisible” makes a non-metaphorical reference to invisibility, a crucial element in Smith’s work. After this it is concluded that Smith wanted us to compare the different appearances of the expression, trying to suggest the greater interest of the republican moral, political and economic system with respect to the one of the Old Regime.