The argumentative structure of the Wealth of Nations

Abstract

The paper sheds fresh light on what Adam Smith was doing in writing WN by looking at its place in his unaccomplished oeuvre. WN is just a partial implementation of a part of his project: the history and theory of law and government. In WN, the ‘Socratic method’ of persuasion and the ‘Newtonian method’ of didactical discourse coexist with moral discourse. Such coexistence allows smooth transition from (i) an argument aimed at persuading the public opinion of the advantage carried by non-aggressive commercial policies, high wages and some provision of public goods by the public authority; (ii) a simplified reconstruction of economic mechanisms and tendencies through either conjectural history or ‘systems’; (iii) an argument showing how all the oppressive inequality existent in modern societies is, besides deplorable on whatever moral standard, contrary to everybody’s interest.